Indiana Oracle

Regulatory Reform: The Political Calculus

Tom,

Thanks for your article. It is refreshing to hear this kind of mature analysis. I am not an Obama fan, but not everything he does is wrong.

The trick will be to avoid letting this initiative become pitchfork legislation, and to assess unintended consequences with a clear eye. Frankly, I will be amazed to see this underpin new legislation in this area, but hope to be proven wrong.

Obama's Housing Fix Falls Flat

The things which come repeatedly to my mind around this overt and seemingly endless march toward the expansion of government reach and control are:

1. A lack of emphasis on things which will directly benefit the citizenry; the opposite is more the trend.

2. Nearly obsessive determination in the Congress and this administration's to install structural changes to the US economy.

3. The obviousness, boldness, and arrogance of it all engenders a seemingly muted response by the general public.

Certainly the MSM is abetting information suppression and misdirection. How much of the public is actually aware of this is not clear, but many Congressmen are hearing from the folks at home now. The public seems to be awakening.

My sense of this situation is like waiting for a ballon to pop from over inflation (no pun intended). In biology terms, as if a super saturation is near. On top of how bad things look for the general US economy right now, if this goes on much longer it would not surprise me if we were to see significant instances of social unrest.

Chart of the Week: Four Key Economic Indicators

Bill --
Very helpful. Thanks for the work.

Is There Enough Natural Gas?

Thanks for that work.

When looking at fossil fuel replacement over the past years through to today, a few things repeatedly jump to mind.

1) There is no obvious, coherent, overarching energy policy that is being articulated to the public, passes a pedestrian sniff test, and which fires the public zeal of middle Americans. CAT has all the appearances of a political chimera whether that is its intention or not, and "sniffs" badly. Hardly anyone in flyover country (where I live) does not feel that Washington adheres to the old saw, "the masses are asses".

2) I do not like Washington directing energy solutions via bureaucrats, but a "jolt" is need to redirect the ship of energy in America.

The Imminent Equity Implosion

What is your opinion of a scenario where the administration will not let C go into bankruptcy?