The terrorists don't want you to sell stocks short

With the oh-so-successful ban on short-selling of stocks coming off today, a finance blogger has a suggestion for those who think less government regulation of financial markets will only bring on ruination. He says you might consider converting to Islam.

Fed warns about falling property taxes

Just in time for Gov. Steve Beshear's "we're borrowing our way to prosperity" victory lap, we get the word from the Federal Reserve about what to expect -- and when to expect it -- when it comes to falling property tax revenues.

I know the presidential candidates are determined to "stabilize" real estate prices, but all the fun and games will be disrupted soon enough as our big entitlement programs come calling for money we don't have.

Let me guess: we need casinos and more taxes?

Gov. Steve Beshear has called a press conference for Thursday morning at 9:30, room 110 in the Capitol to discuss the economy.

Starting to hit the pension nail on its head

Financial difficulties can be a good thing when it forces prioritization. In flush times, a satellite dish with every channel in the world might be a lot of fun. When times get tough, it makes sense to figure out which channels you can live without.

The question we are going to have to answer in Kentucky is when our public defined-benefit pension plans become like Australian rules football on ESPN 12. The prospect of massive taxpayer losses have been too easy to overlook until now.

As part of a CNN Money article about how private defined-benefit plans should all be gone soon, there is this detail about why these taxpayer time bombs have hung on longer:

Pretty soon, more people may come to think of paying for public employee benefits that are unavailable in the real world as akin to sitting around watching Australian rules football on ESPN 12.

Anne Northup turns on Mitch McConnell

Don't know how this one is going to end up, but I like to see the fight:

I'm not crazy about the typo in the middle of this ad -- and Anne's timing for getting religion on pork spending leaves a little to be desired -- but it is a conversation Republicans are going to have to have with each other at some point.

Let's sing a happy bailing song!

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1000 points since the Congress rushed through its bailout and pork sandwich and President Bush signed it last week.

And I feel great.

No, I'm not celebrating the national angst -- though it's tempting -- or the $700 billion we flushed into the abyss. I'm just relieved there is general agreement we shouldn't print up another $700 billion to fix all our problems again. And the widespread angst will be hugely profitable once we get back to allowing that sort of thing around here.

Nevertheless, I find it necessary to correct some convenient re-writing of history about Herbert Hoover. He is cast, conveniently enough for those doing the casting, as a hard-hearted Republican free-marketeer who sat by and did nothing as the nation collapsed into the Great Depression.

This simply is not true.

In fact, I found this great quote from Hoover about his efforts to stave off disaster:

"We might have done nothing",Hoover said, "[but] we determined that we would not follow the advice of the bitter-end liquidationists."

I am the type of proud "bitter-end liquidationist" that neither Hoover nor Bush would allow to get in the way of all the inverventionist fun. Our problem now, as then, is excessive credit that has to be wrung out of the system. The sooner our politicians let that happen, the sooner the economy will get back to growing.

California's hints that they will need bailing out are just the tip of the iceberg that represents the states and cities that may keep the next president too occupied on that level to do much damage on a large scale for a while.

That and the inevitable firesale prices on assets all over the world for those of us who didn't wreck ourselves in the party, may make it all worthwhile fairly soon.

Sign o' the times

I'm struck by how unhelpful the mainstream media is in the wake the financial meltdown/bailout/new Great Depression nonsense going on these last few weeks. It almost seems like party pooping to point out that if those of us who are able keep providing services people need and keep our spending to within our means and keep our wits about us when some people with microphones are screaming about the end of the world, we will emerge from any temporary setbacks as stronger people.

I hope you can see and enjoy the humor in this (click below to read):

Still looking for that pony!

The Kentucky Club for Growth adds some details to a post I put up this morning about Kentucky's deteriorating financial situation and particularly the official inaction that stands to make it all worse. (Go here to see the Club's post.)

One bit of good news that I just found out -- that's good news in the optimistic sense of the boy who spent hours digging through a room full of manure hopeful to find the pony that was surely in there somewhere -- is that Kentucky has not issued any of the billion and a half dollars in bonded indebtedness the legislature decided to issue in the budget passed last spring. Given the current state of the municipal bond market, it may be a while before they can sign our children up for any of that debt. So -- good news.

Gotta enjoy it when you can find it.

Setting off dead-tree cannibalism

A weekend discussion about the wisdom of subsidizing newspapers with scarce tax dollars has created a minor firestorm at the Bowling Green Daily News that resulted in me being deemed an unperson (reference "1984" Orwell,George). (See this for the latest from the Daily Nooze.)

More on this from me here.

I've been very interested in the ongoing transformation of the news business. So I found a discussion about how big newspapers may start going out of business soon worth a read -- including a much more civil discussion in the comments section.

Emergency Summit in Frankfort

I'm heading to the Capital Plaza Hotel in Frankfort for a 1 pm emergency summit hosted by the Bluegrass Institute dealing with Gov. Steve Beshear's seizure of internet domains.

See you there! (Click below for details)

Where have we heard this before?

The Lexington Herald Leader and the Louisville Courier Journal were too busy this weekend to print it, but bond rating agency Fitch had this to say about Kentucky:

"The Negative Outlook reflects plans to continue to deplete fund balances and virtually drain the budget reserve trust in the current biennium. Further, Fitch remains concerned about the weakened pension funding levels and the commonwealth's rising debt position as an additional $1.65 billion in debt has been authorized for the biennium."

Wouldn't want Gov. Steve "Sixty percent approval rating" Beshear to face any tough questions about any of this, would we?

Why newspapers are dropping like flies

Some wuss at the Bowling Green Daily News has his talking points down pat when freedom of speech rolls into his wallet.

But when it starts going the other way and he can't back up his arguments, he does this:

If Barney Frank were a Republican...

No, Congressman Yarmuth, it wasn't "deregulation" or "capitalism" that caused the banking mess. I'm not any happier with the Republicans who jumped in to support "the big fix." Both parties are shooting at the innocent bystander -- free market capitalism -- but when Congressional Democrats were presented with evidence, the went Social Security "there is no crisis" on us.

Don't call KY newspaper bailout a bailout

Funny blog post by Bowling Green Daily News General Manager Mark Van Patten about newspapers and bankers followed by an even funnier discussion in the comments section.

Check it out here.

EVEN Funnier Update: I had to change my log-in on the Bowling Green Daily News website to comment because this champion of free speech was deleting my comments and, ultimately, blocked me from making comments. I just posted this:

It will be interesting to see how long it stays up. Some people's principles sure go out the window fast when their paycheck is on the line.

Having a nice credit crunch?

In the mail today came a $30,000, no fee, 0% APR till 2010 credit card offer from Washington Mutual for my 19 year-old college student son.

"I'm from the government blah, blah..."

An ironically-timed press release from the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions today would be roll-on-the-floor funny if not for the scam perpetuated on us by the Congress utilizing tactics that were identical to those Frankfort is now warning us against.
(Click to read)

Politics at its worst

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on the House floor taking credit for killing the first bailout bill and talking about how great the revised version is.

And the increase in federal insurance will just help the FDIC go bankrupt faster.

Pelosi also said the bill would begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people."

Really, Nancy? How, exactly, might it do that?

Rep. Ben Chandler repeated his no vote from Monday, as did Rep. Ed Whitfield and Rep. Geoff Davis. Rep. John Yarmuth flipped to the dark side, joining Rep. Hal Rogers and Rep. Ron Lewis.

Sen. Brett Guthrie, what say you?

Barack Youth

You may have heard of the Obama video with adoring, adorable children singing his praises. If you liked that, you will love this:


(via Caleb Brown)

Oh, and here is a response. Sans kool-aid.

McCain-Palin sleeping through healthcare debate

In his debate, Sen. John McCain didn't answer Sen. Barack Obama's criticism about his health-care and tonight, Gov. Sarah Palin didn't either.

Sure wish they would. This link would help.

Cracking down on Obamacide

Secretary of State Trey Grayson will speak to a student pro-life group on the University of Kentucky campus later this month.

The Barack Obama fans are really going to hate that.