The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School predicted has arrived.

Dr. Ron Paul wrote:

We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy - all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment - and prevent the market's attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets.

Last night the president addressed the nation about the financial crisis. There is no point in going through his remarks line by line, since I'd only be repeating what I've been saying over and over - not just for the past several days, but for years and even decades.

Still, at least a few observations are necessary.

The president assures us that his administration "is working with Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in our markets." Care to take a guess at whether the Federal Reserve and its money creation spree were even mentioned?

We are told that "low interest rates" led to excessive borrowing, but we are not told how these low interest rates came about. They were a deliberate policy of the Federal Reserve. As always, artificially low interest rates distort the market. Entrepreneurs engage in malinvestments - investments that do not make sense in light of current resource availability, that occur in more temporally remote stages of the capital structure than the pattern of consumer demand can support, and that would not have been made at all if the interest rate had been permitted to tell the truth instead of being toyed with by the Fed.

Not a word about any of that, of course, because Americans might then discover how the great wise men in Washington caused this great debacle. Better to keep scapegoating the mortgage industry or "wildcat capitalism" (as if we actually have a pure free market!).

Speaking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the president said: "Because these companies were chartered by Congress, many believed they were guaranteed by the federal government. This allowed them to borrow enormous sums of money, fuel the market for questionable investments, and put our financial system at risk."

Doesn't that prove the foolishness of chartering Fannie and Freddie in the first place? Doesn't that suggest that maybe, just maybe, government may have contributed to this mess? And of course, by bailing out Fannie and Freddie, hasn't the federal government shown that the "many" who "believed they were guaranteed by the federal government" were in fact correct?

Then come the scare tactics. If we don't give dictatorial powers to the Treasury Secretary "the stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet." Left unsaid, naturally, is that with the bailout and all the money and credit that must be produced out of thin air to fund it, the value of your retirement account will drop anyway, because the value of the dollar will suffer a precipitous decline. As for home prices, they are obviously much too high, and supply and demand cannot equilibrate if government insists on propping them up.

It's the same destructive strategy that government tried during the Great Depression: prop up prices at all costs. The Depression went on for over a decade. On the other hand, when liquidation was allowed to occur in the equally devastating downturn of 1921, the economy recovered within less than a year.

The president also tells us that Senators McCain and Obama will join him at the White House today in order to figure out how to get the bipartisan bailout passed. The two senators would do their country much more good if they stayed on the campaign trail debating who the bigger celebrity is, or whatever it is that occupies their attention these days.

F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize for showing how central banks' manipulation of interest rates creates the boom-bust cycle with which we are sadly familiar. In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, he described the foolish policies being pursued in his day - and which are being proposed, just as destructively, in our own:

Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion.

To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection - a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end... It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.

The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not learn from history.

The very people who have spent the past several years assuring us that the economy is fundamentally sound, and who themselves foolishly cheered the extension of all these novel kinds of mortgages, are the ones who now claim to be the experts who will restore prosperity! Just how spectacularly wrong, how utterly without a clue, does someone have to be before his expert status is called into question?

Oh, and did you notice that the bailout is now being called a "rescue plan"? I guess "bailout" wasn't sitting too well with the American people.

The very people who with somber faces tell us of their deep concern for the spread of democracy around the world are the ones most insistent on forcing a bill through Congress that the American people overwhelmingly oppose. The very fact that some of you seem to think you're supposed to have a voice in all this actually seems to annoy them.

I continue to urge you to contact your representatives and give them a piece of your mind. I myself am doing everything I can to promote the correct point of view on the crisis. Be sure also to educate yourselves on these subjects - the Campaign for Liberty blog is an excellent place to start. Read the posts, ask questions in the comment section, and learn.

H.G. Wells once said that civilization was in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have.

In liberty,

Ron Paul

America Says NO to the Bush Bailout!

Missed this event. Wish I could have gone. Any others like it in the future -- post them here in the comments and I'll plug them on the blog.

America Says NO to the Bush Bailout!: "Let's deliver an immediate and direct response to the president’s call for this enormous bailout: NO!

Volunteers will host actions in cities and towns across the country with a simple message: 'America says NO Bush Bailout!”

Find an event (or *create* a new one if there's not one already -- we must lead ourselves)"

No blank check for Wall Street.

No blank check for Wall Street.: "No blank check for Wall Street."

Memo to Ricky Burgess about his youth policy.

I LOVE gangs. I desire more attention to positive gangs that we control: orchestras, swim teams, baseball leagues.

Ricky Burgess, D, member of Pittsburgh City Council, is pitching a program that is now about a bigger stick to whack down a wider reach of folks. His policy, and that of the mayor, is a continuation of the failed policy of the WAR ON DRUGS.

This is like a "surge" on our streets.

KDKA Radio's Marty read my posting (above, mostly) on the air.

Paradise Gray does not know Anthony! Get out! The schools are not being well utilized. We agree. Anthony calls it the kids fault.

The violence must stop. No joke. But how? With more violence isn't okay.

Caller: If we have trouble makers -- why isn't the police already doing their jobs? They are not to police themselves -- or are they? Our tax money goes to the police to do a job.

Youth Training - USA v Germany (in soccer)

Youth Training - USA v Germany: "Youth Training - USA v Germany"

Great feature.

The Loyalist: Song from the past. History can repeat itself

Dave Nachmanoff, sings a song about the Loyalist!

In the time of the American Revolution, 1770s, there were many who were for King George.

The back-up voice is that of Al Stewart.

Today, could the loyalist be the ones who go blindly into a bailout of $700-billion, this month, for the corporate folks.

Ogranization offers to commit suicide -- due to the bailout

Downsize DC commits suicide

We've heard the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve Chairman make their case for a $700 billion bailout of the financial markets. We're not persuaded. Quite the contrary. We reject their predictions of dire consequences if their plan doesn't pass. We're so convinced of this that we're willing to stake our continued existence on it.

If the economy goes into a deep slump because they didn't pass their bailout plan then charitable contributions will be among the first things cut from family budgets. If we're wrong then we'll be among the many institutions to fail. But we don't believe we're wrong. And we don't believe we'll fail.

In 2003 dire warnings about "weapons of mass destruction" were used to justify an unnecessary war in Iraq. We bucked the tide of public hysteria and dared to claim that there were NO "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.

We were right, and popular opinion, driven by political fear mongering, was wrong. Now we're being told that our economy is threatened by "financial weapons of mass destruction," and we'll once again buck the hysterical trend by predicting that . . .

There are no "financial weapons of mass destruction" threatening our economy -- except for the $700 billion bailout plan.

We don't believe that mortgage defaults on a mere 3 million homes have the power to halt the mighty American economic engine. It's really that simple.

Many wild claims are being made. Yesterday, on CNBC, Jim Cramer predicted a Great Depression II if the bailout plan isn't passed. Cramer is even willing to let the Democrats cap CEO pay and take ownership positions in troubled firms (socialism), if that's what it takes to pass the bailout plan. Cramer, despite his great intelligence and personal charm, is madly, hysterically, wrong.

In the Great Depression 40% of homes went into foreclosure.

Today the foreclosure rate is only 6%, and the trend is toward fewer foreclosures rather than more.

We're far closer to the end of this problem than we are to the beginning.

Of course, the fear mongers will claim that we had a 40% foreclosure rate in the Great Depression precisely because the government didn't intervene soon enough, and that current foreclosure rates will spiral out of control if the bailout bill isn't passed. This reading of history gets the true story of the Great Depression exactly backwards . . .

The myth is that President Hoover did nothing after the stock market burst in 1929. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Hoover actually began the kinds of interventions that are commonly associated with FDR. Roosevelt was merely copying, and dramatically expanding on what Hoover had already done, not setting a new course. And look at what the results were . . . a Great Depression that lasted for 12 long years!

Hoover and Roosevelt both tried to stop market prices from falling, which is exactly what the current proposal aims to do. But the result in the late 20s and early 30s was that the market never cleared, and so the Depression went on and on and on.

We could have the same thing again today if we allow the government to once again intervene in natural market processes.

The fact is that the politicians, the bureaucrats, and various hysteria mongers, are misleading us. They tell us that the market is frozen, but the fact is that commercial loans are at an all-time high, and even real estate loans ARE HIGHER THAN THEY WERE LAST YEAR! The fact is that . . .

The current "crisis" is mainly centered among the highly leveraged investment banks on Wall Street, but even there the market is far from frozen. Merrill Lynch was able to sell its bad assets and was then bought by Bank of America (which had earlier bought CountryWide).

Does this look like a frozen market to you? It doesn't to us.

And would it really matter if the markets were "frozen?" Inactive markets simply mean that buyers and sellers of assets have a disagreement about what those assets are worth. We must not allow the politicians and the bureaucrats to substitute their judgement for the judgements of buyers and sellers who are, after all, SPENDING THEIR OWN MONEY, whereas the politicians and bureaucrats are asking to spend YOUR MONEY!

We've taken the time, and shown the courtesy, of hearing our "leaders" speak, and having done so, WE REJECT THEIR CLAIMS! THEIR MUST BE NO BAILOUT, OF ANY KIND!

Please be clear about what we're NOT saying. We're NOT saying that things are rosy, or even all that good. As we explained Monday, we're feeling the effects of a FED-generated bubble pop. We are very simply saying that a bailout is wrong-headed and unnecessary, and could even make things worse.

If you agree with us, please tell your elected representatives to OPPOSE ALL BAILOUTS! You can use our generic campaign for cutting federal spending to send your message. Use your personal comments to reject the bailout and to make any of the points we've made in this message, or additional arguments of your own. You can send your message using our Educate the Powerful System.

But don't stop there. Please take the following additional steps . . .

* Call your Representative and your two Senators after you've sent your message
* Pass this Dispatch to others -- SOUND THE ALARM AND SPREAD THE WORD
* Register for a Digg account, and then Digg this message on our blog.

Finally, we've staked our existence on our principals and our best judgement. We expect to thrive, not die. But we are struggling in this economy too. Many DC Downsizers have had to cut their pledges because of the current downturn. Some have lost their jobs. We really need those of you who are still doing well to come to our aid. We especially need new monthly pledges to replace $400 a month we've lost so far this Summer. You can make a contribution here.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC army!

Jim Babka & Perry Willis
President & Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

Talking Health Care at event at Duquesne Univ

Jerry Bowyer is the moderator.

Talking Health Care at event at Duquesne Univ

Jerry Bowyer is the moderator.

Looking for clever old-school slogans and quotes from a small business guy w quixotic son

Here is part of an email:

I was up on Capitol Hill yesterday among the swarm of big bank lobbyists.

And the first thing I thought of was something my dad -- Nathra Nader -- used to say:

"Capitalism will always survive in the United States as long as the government is willing to use socialism to bail it out."

Dad was old school.

Dad emigrated to the U.S. in 1912 when he was nineteen.

"When I sailed past the Statue of Liberty, I took it seriously," he would say.

Dad ran a restaurant in downtown Winsted, CT -- the Highland Arms.

People used to say -- "At Nader's place, for a nickel you got a cup of coffee and ten minutes of conversation."

Dad didn't hesitate to skewer the greed of big business.

He especially opposed the drive by the chain stores to destroy family owned small businesses.

Dad was a man of many sayings.

"Congress is the best big business investment in the country," he would say. "It's one big leveraged sell-out."

When we were young, Dad would tell us:

"Don't look down on anyone and don't be in awe of anyone."

Or this one:

"Almost everyone will claim they love their country. If that is true, why don't they spend more time improving it?"

Dad knew early on that both political parties were under the thumb of big business. (Where did you think I got it from?)

Anyway, being on Capitol Hill yesterday got me to thinking about an idea that would help us push our substantive agenda onto the front burner of American politics.

A few years ago, I sat down at my manual typewriter and typed in 100 or so of my Dad's most memorable sayings and proverbs.

I thought you would enjoy having a copy of them.

So, here's the deal.

Our goal during this current fundraising drive is to hit $150,000 by the end of the month. (Thanks to your generosity, we're already at $36,000.)

If you donate any amount that has the number 3 in it -- as in -- we want a 3-way race -- by midnight tonight, we'll e-mail to you a collection of my Dad's sayings and proverbs.

That simple.

If you want the book -- you can do the google search to find the offer. Clever give-a-way.

Bruce Kraus = Ineffective. Such a failure.

To be sure, the fight isn't over -- yet. But, for now, the 6-0 decision is clearly on the side that is against years of work. All the work is fruitless. Worthless leadership, perhaps.

Panel approves South Side restaurant - Pittsburgh Tribune-ReviewPanel approves South Side restaurant

By Jeremy Boren, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Pittsburgh's Planning Commission served a setback Tuesday to South Side residents who have fought to prevent more liquor-serving restaurants and bars from opening in the neighborhood.

"This is a rush to judgment," said Nicholas Kefal, 71, of the South Side. "(The commission) could undercut years of work by the community."

In a 6-0 vote, commission members recommended that the owners of Baba D's, a Mediterranean restaurant in Oakland, be permitted to open with a liquor license in the 2100 block of East Carson Street across from the Carson Towers apartment building. The decision requires City Council's approval.

Councilman Bruce Kraus, who represents the South Side, told the commission the corner already has five liquor-serving establishments and that many of his constituents do not believe a sixth should be allowed.

He read aloud several letters from neighbors opposed to the restaurant owner's request to sidestep an ordinance City Council approved in July 2007 that sought to limit the number of liquor-serving establishments in neighborhoods already packed with them.

The South Side has more than 90 bars and restaurants that serve liquor.

Dourid Aboud, whose family owns the business, said it will be a family-run restaurant, not a rowdy bar. He agreed to stop serving food and liquor at 11 p.m. daily and not to expand seating in the bar area beyond 13.

Some South Side residents at the meeting questioned who would enforce the rules, particularly if the restaurant and its license are eventually sold.

Before the vote, commission member E. Paul Dick cautioned against making an exception for a restaurant "the first time this issue comes up." He abstained from the vote.

In other news, UPMC is shaking in its boots with fears that Bruce Kraus is going to come down and demand that the UPMP South Side Hospital remain open.

Customers Affected By Recent Power Outages To Get Answers - News Story - WPXI Pittsburgh

Customers Affected By Recent Power Outages To Get Answers - News Story - WPXI Pittsburgh: "Those affected by the recent power outages will have the chance to get some answers Wednesday.

Allegheny County Councilman Matt Drozd wants anyone affected by last week's power outages to come to Wednesday night's county council public safety meeting.

The wind storm left tens of thousands in the dark, some for an entire week.

Top management of local utility services have been asked to attend.

'They didn't even have a chance to voice their concerns, didn't even reach their call centers, did not get a call returned for days and days later, and their frustrations were pent up inside them,' said Drozd.

The event is at 5 p.m. in council chambers.

They won't get many new answers. The wind blew. The lines fell. The repairs were slow as a new bottle of Heinz ketchup.

However, it is great that Councilman Drozd is trying to hold their feet to the fire. And, we might get a nice surprise.

Calls requested for Obama's PA offices for debate inclusion

As Bush invited Perot into the debates and as Reagan invited John Anderson to debate, Barack Obama can demand that Bob Barr be included in the debates.
So here's the task:

Pick up the phone and call 267-886-8591.

"Hi my name is __________ and I'm calling to request that Senator Obama invite minority party candidates Bob Barr and Ralph Nader to participate in the upcoming presidential debates. Could you please leave this message with the head of your office, Jesse Thomas?

Send me a note at feedback@bobbarr2008.com and let me know how it went.

Orange going rotten: Robinson's time at Syracuse coach appears to be growing short - College Football

Pitt's footballers go to New York this week to play Syracuse. Interesting.

ESPN - Robinson's time at Syracuse coach appears to be growing short - College Football: "Robinson's time at Syracuse coach appears to be growing short

I can't wait to see the movie. I'm a big fan of sports flicks from Hoosiers to Remember the Titans to Miracle to Pre (a movie about Steve Prefontane). Sports flicks are interesting -- even Rocky.

Syracuse athletic director Dr. Daryl Gross said Monday that the Orange football team has yet to show the "obvious progress" necessary for Greg Robinson to remain as football coach beyond this season.

Syracuse has a Big East record of 2-22 in the past three seasons.

Dr. Daryl Gross, Syracuse athletics director, has been stung by recent coast-to-coast criticism, including on ESPN's "College GameDay," of the program's decline under his watch. He made an unsolicited phone call to ESPN.com to defend himself, citing the university's success in nonrevenue sports, ranging from the 2008 NCAA men's lacrosse championship to an Orange field hockey program currently ranked third in the nation.

"We got so many good things going on here," Gross said. "The 800-pound gorilla is football. You and I both know we've been very fair to Coach Robinson. Everyone wanted the guy's head last year. I said I didn't want Syracuse to become one of those three-years-and-out schools. I said, 'Let's calm down and [if needed] we'll get the first pick of the draft [of coaching candidates] next year.' That's where we are."



Hope Pitt beats Syracuse this weekend in football.

Hope Syracuse puts the AD's head on a stick.

Hope Syracuse moves to re-start the swim team and fund them fully.

Schenley High School web site stinks

Check out the Schenley web site http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/schenley/site/default.asp. Gosh, there is room for improvement there. They get 50% on many pages -- when I'd give them a grade of "F."

Welcome to Pilot Aquatic Club. New coach hired in TN -- my old swimmer

Big swim news, a bit further south. Jim Rumbaugh got hired as the head coach of a big club, Pilot.

Welcome to Pilot Aquatic Club

Jim Rumbaugh has accepted an offer to be the next Head Coach of Pilot Aquatic Club.

Jim signed a four year contract this afternoon and is assuming the Head Coach position effective immediately.

Jim interviewed for the position last Monday. After going through the interview process a unanimous decision of parents assisting with the search and the Board was reached to offer Jim the position as Head Coach.

Jim comes to us HIGHLY recommended by John Trembley and Matt Kredich. He has most recently been serving as Head Coach of Tennessee Aquatics and as a volunteer assistant coach for the Men's Swimming program at the University of Tennessee. He also coached seven years at Dynamo Swim Team in Atlanta and also served as Head Coach of Lompoc Tsunami Swim Team in Lompoc CA. He was a team captain of the University of Tennessee Men's team for two years, was a five time All-American. Jim is married and is a 3rd degree black-belt in Taekwondo and is an avid golfer.

Jim will be introduced at the Membership meeting tomorrow, Tuesday September 16 at 6:00 pm at Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.

Please join me in welcoming Jim to the Pilot Aquatic Club family.

Way to go Jimmy!

Too bad we don't have a slew of programs like this in our region. It would be great to have him home as a swim coach. But, it just isn't happening here.

I was able to coach Jim was a high school senior, at Plum High School. He set two WPIAL swim records, beating one classic record by Mel Nash in the 100 back. At states he won 2 gold medals, 100 back and 200 IM. He was .01 from the state record in one event and broke the state record in the other.

The great thing about Jimmy's senior year of swimming was that he went faster at Jr. National than he did at the PIAA Meet -- as I had hoped and predicted.

We'll need to get to Knoxville for a swim meet in the months and years to come.

Jimmy swam USA Swimming (club swimming) for the JCC Sailfish, the same team where my sons swim now.

Nike will not compete with Speedo, TYR - More Sports - SI.com

Nike will not compete with Speedo, TYR - More Sports - SI.com Nike said Monday that it is leaving the elite swimwear market.

The company will continue to provide swimwear for colleges and sell to traditional retail customers. But it will not compete against the likes of Speedo to get the swoosh on the world's top swimmers.

'We will not invest in next-generation swim innovation, which is not in line with our stated category growth strategy,' the company said in a statement.

What will the new Science and Tech High School & Middle School do with its software elements?

"The real shock is that the academic programming language community continues to reject the sea change in programming practices brought about by scripting. Enamored of the object-oriented paradigm, especially in the undergraduate curriculum, unwilling to accept the LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-Perl/Python/Php) tool set, and firmly believing that more programming theory leads to better programming practice, the academics seem blind to the facts on the ground."

I say, the school needs to use Open Source Software and that's that. Any other move is a tragic mistake.

Stay tuned. Thinking about my possible replies.

1. What brought you to Social Media and what keeps you hanging around?

2. Which social networking tool gives you the shakes when it's not updated or is experiencing down time? (Podcasts, Blogs, Micro-blogging, etc)

3. What kind of insight could you offer to others on a topic at PCPGH3? If none, then what do you most want to hear more about?

Humm....

PodCamp Pittsburgh - PCPGH3 themed Friday 5 this week!: "PCPGH3 themed Friday 5 this week!"


In other blogging news:

Annual National Bullying Prevention Awareness Week Calls on Bloggers to Become Partner and Help Stop Bullying: "Annual National Bullying Prevention Awareness Week Calls on Bloggers to Become Partner and Help Stop Bullying"

With eye on rash of arrests, Hawkeyes hire director of player development - College Football

Does your favorite college football team have a parole officer on its coaching staff too?

ESPN - With eye on rash of arrests, Hawkeyes hire director of player development - College Football Iowa has hired former defensive back Chigozie Ejiasi to be its director of player development following a rash of off-field problems involving football players.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz promoted Ejiasi, who has served as an administrative assistant for the team the last two years. Ferentz chose Ejiasi from a pool of more than 100 applicants.

'We created this position to assist our student-athletes in the transition from high school to college and to help make their experience at Iowa as positive as possible,'

Pitt beat Iowa. Now Iowa needs to hire a nanny to do bed checks and dish out time-outs.

What about the good old days: If you screw up, then go home. There. Don't need to have a new position to pack the player's bags.