Innocent Bystanders

Cyprus Rescues Greece April 30, 2013

Not so long ago (1974), Greek Cypriots feared Turkey, and their Turkish Cypriot neighbors, and looked to Greece as their protecter.

Now, Greek Cypriots are being forced to help bail out (or “bail in”) the bankrupt economy of Greece.  They ain’t happy about it.

The so-called ‘bail-in’ forces savers to foot the bill for the recapitalisation of Cyprus’ biggest bank, after it was hit by massive losses from its exposure to debt-crippled Greece.

Bank of Cyprus said it had converted 37.5pc of deposits exceeding €100,000 into “class A” shares, with an additional 22.5pc held as a buffer for possible conversion in the future.

Another 30pc would be temporarily frozen and held as deposits, the bank said.

via Bank of Cyprus executes depositor bail-in – Telegraph.

Just amazing what runaway spending and government debt can accomplish.

The Anemic Deficit Reduction Plan of the Democrats April 30, 2013

The CBO reviewed deficit projections for 10 years from now (FY2023), comparing their projections based on current law to the Dems’ and the GOP’s deficit reduction proposals. Even without delving into the projections themselves, I think you can see a serious issue with the Dems’ plan.

Yeah – the part where the Dems barely reduce the deficit? That’s a problem for me.

The current law projection says we’ll have a deficit of 3.8% of GDP in 2023. The Democrats say that their bold plan will reduce that deficit to a mere 2.2% of GDP. Thanks for nothing, guys.

Meanwhile the GOP is trying to achieve a balanced budget by 2023. You can argue about whether their plan is realistic, but you can’t argue about their goal – at least they’re trying to make a serious impact on our budget problems.

But why does it matter? Here’s why – take a look at the interest curve in this chart:
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Correcting the 90% Debt Effect on GDP Number April 29, 2013

I’m sure you all remember the paper by a pair of Harvard University professors saying that a public debt level of 90% of GDP would significantly suppress GDP growth. Well, a team from UMass/Amherst has pointed out that Reinhart and Rogoff made mistakes in their analysis, excluding data from several countries. This has caused quite a stir, with the Keynesians on the warpath, trying to turn this into a green light for more spending.

But let’s take a look at the corrected data before the Keynesians get their tentacles too deeply into our pockets. Here’s a corrected summary of the data provided by the UMass team:

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The Economic Impact of the Democrats’ Intransigence April 29, 2013

The Chairman/CEO of the Vanguard Group talks about the impact of economic uncertainties on the economy:
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The Decline of The Blog? April 27, 2013

Sniff. It looks like our glory days are behind us, as the traditional blog is relegated to the dustbin of history:
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Improving Education Isn’t a Matter of Money April 26, 2013

The UK compares educational spending vs. results, and finds that the relentless clamor of educators for more funding is completely unjustified:

The biggest surprise, though, was the money: no matter how you split the figures, the amount spent didn’t seem to make the blindest bit of difference. “There is no correlation at all,” it concluded, “between the level of per-pupil funding and educational outcomes.”

Not exactly news to the readers here, but nice to see the word getting out.

California Assembly Votes to Outsource Justice April 26, 2013

This has me more than a little freaked out:

The California Assembly passed a bill on Thursday that would make the state the first in the nation to allow non-citizens who are in the country legally to serve on jury duty.
…
Democratic lawmakers who voted for the bill said there is no correlation between being a citizen and a juror, and they noted that there is no citizenship requirement to be an attorney or a judge.

No correlation between being a citizen and a juror? How about the part where they understand and are committed to our system of justice? Huh? The part where they swear to “Support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic?” How about that?

Seems to me that putting non-citizens on juries is essentially outsourcing justice.

And the end result isn’t likely to look anything like American justice.

Yes! April 23, 2013

There’s a special place in hell for you.

…the FBI said it put Toth on [the Most Wanted List] because there were no reliable clues as to his whereabouts and because his Internet skills and alleged penchant for grooming children made him especially dangerous.

The Next Logical Step April 21, 2013

As long as the blog is trending towards quick throwaway posts that are also sphincter-clenchingly horrifying,

Denmark and Sustainable Levels of Entitlements April 21, 2013

The New York Times(!!!) reporting on Denmark’s realization that its lavish entitlement system is rapidly becoming a problem:

It began as a stunt intended to prove that hardship and poverty still existed in this small, wealthy country, but it backfired badly. Visit a single mother of two on welfare, a liberal member of Parliament goaded a skeptical political opponent, see for yourself how hard it is.

It turned out, however, that life on welfare was not so hard. The 36-year-old single mother, given the pseudonym “Carina” in the news media, had more money to spend than many of the country’s full-time workers. All told, she was getting about $2,700 a month, and she had been on welfare since she was 16.

Yes, they’ve finally noticed that giving people strong incentives not to work means that they stop working.

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