Andy B

Brian Wesbury hit the nail on the head with his Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal today (Monday June 23). I would provide a link, however the filthy capitalist pigs at the Journal require you to be a subscriber to view. (When the revolution comes, the Journal’s offices will certainly be converted to headquarters for the New Propaganda Daily). The main theme of his editorial is that the problem with this economy lies not in prevailing interest rates, and will not be solved through more cutting of said rates, rather the lack of velocity of money flow is what holds us back. Citing Irving Fisher’s brilliantly simple formula of (M)Money X (V)Velocity = (P)Price X (Q)Quantity , we can see that the Fed gets the most bang for its buck by exerting influence on V. I will let Mr. Wesbury’s piece speak for itself on how to do just that.
For an alternative viewpoint, visit my friend Andrew Strasmann’s site, which is updated daily with econ-o-pinion as well as hockey commentary.

Update: Here is the link to Brian Wesbury’s article. Since they obviously allow GKST to republish, I take back what I said about The Journal.

Does anyone else see the similarity between H.R.C. and Nixon? Both tainted by scandal, they are also the most polarizing figures from each of their respective parties. The irony is particularly sweet, since H.R.C. revels in her hatred for R.M.N. I think she has a slightly better chance of being elected President than Nixon would have if he were alive today, (and there were no term limits), but not enough of a chance to actually get elected. The intensity of hatred, contempt, and mistrust felt for these two individuals by the body politic is equal at least, and may be skewed higher towards Hillary, with the passage of time having mitigated somewhat the enmity directed at Nixon. Hillary, however, is the true legacy of the Clinton Presidency. Bill Clinton was nothing more than a patsy who achieved his highest goal in life when he ejaculated on a kneeling intern in the hallway of the Oval Office, and a patsy does not merit lasting hatred. All of the baggage of the House of Clinton now falls directly on her head. FWIW, here is my admittedly non-scientific prediction:

Probability of a 2004 Hillary run—1% She will let fellow Dems cut each other up and will wait for a non-incumbent.
2008 Hillary run—95%
2008 Hillary win—5% Have to allow for the Republicans screwing up.

Watched “Hardball” with Chris Matthews other night when he had Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Steven Hayes, and Celia Sandys, granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill as guests. I was laughing out loud watching Vanden Huevel’s head almost pop off, raving about how George Bush has committed high crimes by lying to the country and dragging the U. S. into war. I encourage you to read the show transcript
The exchange I refer to is in the lower third of the page. See the fun you miss when you do not watch TV Lex?

I cannot add anything to this.

I truly hope that our Treasury Department is fully involved, hard at work on the lookout for counterfeit U.S. currency in Iraq. Seems as if there is an awful lot of cash just laying around that country, and what better way to make a full scale assault on the world’s most envied power, than to surreptitiously devalue their currency? I guess we should be thankful that those most menacing threats to our way of life are apparently not creative enough to successfully carry out such an attack. Think of this, instead of spending 100 billion to acquire nuclear, chemical, biological, or conventional weapons, spending 50 million to set up a sophisticated counterfeiting operation, complete with foreign banking alliances, to hollow out the dollar. It is beautiful in its relative simplicity, and would have been far easier to do pre- September 11th.