The "Atlas Shrugged" index

The Economist reports that sales of Ayn Rand's master tome spike whenever capitalism takes it on the chin:

Reviled in some circles and mocked in others, Rand's 1957 novel of embattled capitalism is a favourite of libertarians and college students. Lately, though, its appeal has been growing. According to data from TitleZ, a firm that tracks bestseller rankings on Amazon, an online retailer, the book's 30-day average Amazon rank was 127 on February 21st, well above its average over the past two years of 542. On January 13th the book's ranking was 33, briefly besting President Barack Obama’s popular tome, "The Audacity of Hope".

Pieces of junk - U.S. automakers take three out of four of the bottom slots for reliability, according to Consumer Reports.  Suck on that, Ford taunted Suzuki.  Honda laughs from on high.

My old man's Chrysler Fifth Avenue never ran right and, after sending a barrage of angry letters to Chrysler, he sold it at a significant loss.  Soon afterwards he gave me this advice: "Never buy an American car."  I actually drive a Pontiac Vibe only because it's made on the same assembly line as the Toyota Matrix and - surprise, surprise - Consumer Reports lists it as one of the few American cars with good reliability.

Trillion is the new billion - Maggie's Farm has some critical quotes about Obama's spend-a-thon.

Trading fear for socialism - Scrivener: "The not-so-great Depression"

Obama won't take your dime. He'll be taking your dollars. Lots of 'em.

The Obamessiah, earlier this week:

Now, let me be clear. Let me be absolutely clear, because I know you'll end up hearing some of the same claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people. If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, a quarter-million dollars a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman says: "No way"

And even if fundamental health care reform brings costs under control, I at least find it hard to see how the federal government can meet its long-term obligations without some tax increases on the middle class.

But then we all knew that was coming.

Extra - Mankiw on the White House's "way too optimistic" assumptions.

A man of action – Boston Globe: "Locke nominated for commerce"


Good for him!

Comment of the day – From (appropriately!) Commentary: "Reagan thought he could reduce Federal Spending by cutting taxes and "starving" Congress of resources. It looks like the Democrats have learned to flip that equation. They are spending so much now so that sometime in the future they will "have to" raise taxes in order to be fiscally responsible and balance the budget."

And raise taxes they will: "The bottom line is that Mr. Obama is selling the country on a 2% illusion. Unwinding the U.S. commitment in Iraq and allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire can't possibly pay for his agenda. Taxes on the not-so-rich will need to rise as well."

Obama can't vote "present" this time – Karl Rove's refusal to testify before the House Judiciary Committee puts President Obama in a bind.

I have to ask: how many BTUs does $6.2 billion generate?

Fox News: "General Motors Corp. says it lost $9.6 billion in the fourth quarter and burned through $6.2 billion in cash as it sought government help to avoid running out of cash."

This is the unsurprising reaction: "Meanwhile people have had it with the auto companies: "Just one-fourth of Americans think the government should continue lending money to Detroit automakers, according to a new USA Today/Gallup Poll, even though the manufacturers say they’ll go out of business without federal help. That’s a huge, and fast, change of heart. In December, before the government approved emergency auto loans, the poll found that 61% favored some kind of government help."

Supreme Court strikes down casino plan in Massachusetts

Ancillary to the efforts of Governor Deval Patrick to create a new Sin City in the Bay State, the Mashpee Wampanoag had been trying to gain federal land around Middleborough for their own casino. Well, they came up double-zero when the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the government can't carve out land for them. From the Boston Globe "Ruling puts tribe hope for casino in doubt":

The US Supreme Court delivered a crippling setback yesterday to the Mashpee Wampanoag in Massachusetts and many other tribes across the nation that are seeking to build casinos, ruling that the federal government cannot place land into trust for newly recognized tribes.

The ruling instantly cast doubt on the Mashpee Wampanoags' quest to build a $1 billion casino in Middleborough, disappointing tribal officials who had hoped to get 539 acres put into federal trust as soon as this spring.

The ruling also eliminates one of the political rationales that had been advanced last year by Governor Deval Patrick and other gambling proponents for approving casinos in Massachusetts. Administration officials had argued that the tribe was likely to win a Native American casino someday, so the state should get in on the action first and control the flow of revenues by setting up its own network of licensed casinos.

Instead of looking for a new source of revenue based on grandmothers playing nickel slots, maybe Beacon Hill should try to bring spending under control. I'm kidding, of course.

Fonts may not be WYSIWYG - Every time I cut and paste text from my Google Chrome browser, it looks all weird the next day.

Obama's speech - Well, he carved out two sentences for entitlement reform.  First, Medicare will be saved with "health care reform" while Social Security will be helped with - did I hear this right? - "tax-free universal accounts"?  Are those the much-vilified private accounts?  Details, please.

For the record, here's the text, via CNN:

"To preserve our long-term fiscal health, we must also address the growing costs in Medicare and Social Security. Comprehensive health care reform is the best way to strengthen Medicare for years to come. And we must also begin a conversation on how to do the same for Social Security, while creating tax-free universal savings accounts for all Americans."

For the record, Medicare is already running a deficit and we've only reached the first wave of Baby Boomers.  All the political and demographic pressure is towards much more spending.

Extra - Melissa Clouthier is liveblogging the address.

Who said anything about individual choice? - The Minuteman says: get ready for voluntary mandatory health care.  It's for your own good.  Besides, individual mandates have worked out great in Massachusetts.

Now they tell us

Boston Globe: "A warning for Obama on deficits"

Just one week after President Obama signed a stimulus package designed to give a short-term boost to the economy, some of the nation's top budget analysts plan to deliver a stark warning today at a White House summit that an even more foreboding long-term crisis will unfold unless Obama quickly fixes Social Security, healthcare, the tax code, and more.

For not the first time, Paul Krugman deploys his "Medicare is in worse shape so pay no attention to Social Security reform" head fake. Poligazette corrects:

Unfortunately, what Krugman’s blizzard of numbers leaves out is the simple question of where the additional 2% of GDP dedicated to Social Security (and far more for the massive increases in Medicare he calls for) would come from. Krugman ignores the additional tax load that would be imposed on workers and the depressive effect that continual massive wealth transfers from young to old would have an a weak economic recovery.

Exactly. Two percent or 20% GDP, somebody's gotta pay. Nobel Prize or not, Krugman's insouciance puts him at odds with the reality-based community of people who understand math:

Analysts across the political spectrum agree that the current path is unsustainable. Unless there is a major budgetary change, federal spending will go from being about 20 percent of the nation's economy to 42 percent in 2050, according to the Concord Coalition. The major reason is that entitlement programs for older Americans are running short of funds.

Medicare, Social Security, public pensions...they're all coming.

Related – NY Times: "Democrats resisting Obama on Social Security." Of course. Old habits die hard.

Extra – Willisms notes that entitlement spending robs the young now and later. And here's a fun graphic from Heritage:

Metaphor of the day – Reason Online: "The idea of Joe Biden…being in charge of anything other than a card game on the Acela club car is pretty disturbing. To have [him] overseeing the implementation of nearly $800 billion in government loot boggles the mind. It's like Jimmy Stewart turning over his bank's money to Uncle Billy for safekeeping in It's a Wonderful Life." Zing!

In a totally unrelated story, the stock market dropped 250 points today after it was announced that Joe Biden would oversee the stimulus money. Remember: coincidence is not causality.

Bring on the leeches

On “Meet the Press” yesterday, Florida governor Charlie Crist defended the Obama stimulus plan with the rationale that we can’t do nothing and we’ve got to do something:

MR. GREGORY: Do you think the president has the right prescription to ease this recession?
GOV. CRIST: I think he's on the right track. I don't think anybody says this is a perfect bill. I don't. I don't think even President Obama says that. But we've got to do something. We are at a time of need, and to do nothing certainly is not acceptable. This is not perfect, but we've got to do something to try to get our country back on track for the benefit of our people.
MR. GREGORY: I want to talk a couple of minutes about housing. Florida, of course, second highest rate of foreclosures in the country in 2008. You also benefited from an incredible housing boom and a speculative boom that preceded the fall of the housing market. Now, the Obama administration's plan essentially boils down to this: more available refinancing for about five million homeowners, and help with payments--modification of payments, reduction in payments--for three to four million homeowners. Is this the right plan?
GOV. CRIST: It may be a good start. I think some of the details still have to be rolled out in early March, as I understand it, and we're going to watch it very closely. But we need to do something to help the housing market. Certainly it's huge in Florida, as you know and you, and you alluded to. One thing that's happening in Florida that's encouraging, in December of '08 we had a 27 percent increase in housing sales over December of '07. I think that's mostly a matter of people getting reasonable about the prices they expect for the value of their home.
MR. GREGORY: But this housing plan, can you describe how it will stop the slide of housing prices?
GOV. CRIST: Well, I'm not sure that it will. I don't think we know that yet. I think it's too early to tell.
MR. GREGORY: Can it be called a success if it doesn't do that?
GOV. CRIST: Well, probably not. But you know, none of us have a crystal ball.
MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.
GOV. CRIST: So we have to try something, we have to do something to make this economy move forward. I think it was Warren Buffett who said--and maybe it was quoted earlier--that this is like the Pearl Harbor of the economy. I mean, we are in a crisis. I think everybody understands that and appreciates it, whether it's housing or whatever sector.
MR. GREGORY: Right.
GOV. CRIST: We've got to do something to get it going again.

Maybe we should have taken that $800 billion dollars and built that machine that sees into the future from the movie “Paycheck.” Then we would have a crystal ball – that would be something. Maybe we should have dropped the cash from helicopters, because that would also be “something.” But the one thing we should not do is “nothing” because “something” is always preferable to “nothing.”

Like when George Washington caught a cold, well, the doctors couldn’t do “nothing”:

Modern doctors believe that Washington died largely because of his treatment, which included calomel [mercury chloride] and bloodletting, resulting in a combination of shock from the loss of five pints of blood, as well as asphyxia and dehydration.

Yet to a doctor: good intentions!

Related – Robert Samuelson: “Obama's Stimulus: A Colossal Waste?”

Amazing Race update – Mountain men and Swiss misses

Ten teams started out from Switzerland and headed to Munich, Germany. Everybody is going to the airport at three in the morning, and the smart teams borrow a cell phone from the cab driver to figure out flights. Only Team Mighty Mites and Team Drinkcart are on the flight that leaves an hour after the other teams so they're in the hole.

Once in Germany, teams go up a cable car and it's the Roadblock: one team member must paraglide off the mountain to land in a field below. If wind conditions are too dangerous, teams may either wait or take an hour-long hike down. Tammy & Victor arrive first but the wind is high and they won't let her go; she decides to hike down the mountain. Eventually there are five teams waiting but, one by one, they decide to take the trail instead of waiting for the wind to die down. Mel of Mel & Mike tries to wait because he strained a muscle in the last leg and doesn't think he can make the hike.

Back from commercial, the wind suddenly stops and Mel floats down the mountain. Meanwhile, the other teams are reaching the bottom and they drive themselves to some chateau for the next clue. Once there, it's the Detour: Balancing Dolly or Austrian Folly. Teams may either take a Segway over an obstacle course or throw pies at each other until they find one with a cherry filling. Team Esquire throws pies and make their frosting-covered way to the Pit Stop at Schloss Hellbrunn.

Meanwhile, back at the mountain, Linda of Team Appalachia fails to follow the arrows on the pathway and comes down far away from where she's supposed to be. After some whimpering, she hitches a ride to the correct parking lot. I'm pretty sure this is not allowed on the Race so, even if they make it to the Pit Stop, they're going to be penalized. Team Sistahs get lost driving to the Detour.

It's getting dark in Germany and they note "14 hours after the start of the Race." One of those minor little tasks the teams need to do after the Detour but before the Pit Stop is to find a woodcutter who will make a little disk that is stamped with the name of the final destination. Team Drinkcart can't seem to figure out where the woodcutter is, so they pick up a piece of lumber outside a barn. Eventually, they find the right guy. The last four teams are having a terrible time navigating the roads in the dark. In the end, Team Appalachia can't make up their earlier misstep and they are eliminated from the Race.

Team standings:

#1 – Team Esquire - Tammy & Victor
#2 – Team White Guys - Mel & Mike
#3 – Team America - Amanda & Kris
#4 – Team Say What? - Margie & Luke
#5 – Team Something - Brad & Victoria
#6 – Team Ginger - Jaime & Cara
#7 – Team Sistahs - Kisha & Jen
#8 – Team Mighty Mites - Mark & Michael
#9 – Team Drinkcart - Christie & Jodi
#10 – Team Appalachia - Steve & Linda – PHILIMINATED

Next week – Romanian gymnastics.

They call him the Seeker – CNN: "Obama seeks to halve deficit by 2013" Yeah, good luck with that. Hopefully there aren't any big expenditures coming up.

Extra – Gateway Pundit says depression is coming while Patterico writes that Obama's plan to soak the rich has worked out great in California.

More – It looks like Obama's going to fulfill at least one campaign promise: he's going to spread the wealth around. Sure, the top 1% already pays almost 40% of all income taxes but they can take another one for the team, right?

Sweeet - It's maple sugar time over at Maggie's Farm.

Investors don't believe the hype – Real Clear Markets "The market is shorting Obama's 'stimulus'": "If historic U.S. budget deficits are any indication, the economy is already “stimulated.” The predicted 2009 federal deficit stood at 8.3% of GDP before Obama’s package sent it to about 12%. This is a stunning level of debt, double the previous post WWII high when Reagan’s 1983 budget deficit amounted to 6% of GDP."