« Bailout News: Meet The Future Prime Minister Of Great Britain Daniel Hannan »
Readers know that my politics are simple. Fiscal conservative, social liberal. I contend this belief set represents the majority of voters yet neither party fits us.
I will be honest, however, the social side doesn't equate well when the fiscal half is heading to federal bankruptcy, debt monetization and the possibility of hyper-inflation. And be assured, we are headed there quickly with Obama's misguided, Keynesian views on government spending. Not coincidentally, German PM Angela Merkel had a few refreshing and realistic words for Obama and Gordon Brown yesterday.
Backstory now completed, I came across this video recently and was pleasantly floored. He is Daniel Hannan an MEP representing South East England in the European Parliament (EPP). He is deft of mind and quick of biting wit and assails Gordon Brown mercilessly. You will not be disappointed in this 3 minute tongue lashing as Brown is forced to sit and smile glibly while his self-delusion is on display.
Gordon Brown, The Devalued Prime Minister of a Devalued Government
"One of the advantages about being outside the EPP is that you get to speak on important occasions. Today was such an occasion. Gordon Brown was in town in advance of the G20 summit. There were a couple of things I wanted to tell him on behalf of my constituents."
Daniel Hannan youtube sensation.
Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 4:36PM
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Reader Comments (8)
Blogger Mish Shedlock calls this phenomenon "FIV" - Fiscal Insanity Virus.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/12/dangerous-virus-rapidly-spreading-globe.html
http://abcnews.go.com/thisweek
May 2009 Atlantic
The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.
by Simon Johnson
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice
Just read the Atlantic piece -- my first heart-attack angry moment of the day (being the Sabbath and all), and it is just a fantastic piece of work. Puts so many pieces together, AND under the auspices of a bona fide establishment economist. Pieces like this one will help in ways that red-blooded pitchforkery will not. (Mind you, those tines are still sharp. Mighty sharp.)
Simon Johnson is certainly taken seriously.
It's going to be interesting to see the protests for the G-20 meeting. European anger is more palpable than our own.
A lot of people claim that political ground. One could make a half-decent (or -baked) argument that of modern presidencies, the Clinton Administration came closest to meeting those criteria. Dutch Reagan and George Bush, Jr. were most certainly the exact opposite: fiscally irresponsible and socially retrograde to extremes. Worth noting if not exactly a revelation. It's important.
Clinton came close but I'm talking about serious fiscal discipline. Not just cutting the growth in government, but actually shrinking it.