Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Money Matters

  • The Peculiar Madness of Paul Krugman

    Excellent analysis by Robert Tracinski.

  • Fiscal Responsibility

    What is the debt debate about?  Senator Marco Rubio in this video does an excellent job of explaining the issue. You decide whether he deserves the 'terrorist' label proffered by Vice President Joe Biden.  By the way, didn't Biden's boss give us a lecture recently about civility?

  • The Debt Debate

    A U.K. commenter remarks: Meanwhile, changing the subject completely, I fail to understand the game of 'chicken' that the two houses are playing over debt. (Wasn't there a James Dean film that started that way, with bad results?). I would be interested in hearing your views in a post. Here are some quick thoughts. To understand what…

  • In Debt We Trust

    I saw the documentary In Debt We Trust on TV on one of the lefty channels.  Trailer here. It is a typical leftist treatment of the problem of indebtedness, but interesting  nonetheless. One of the people interviewed states that "Society preaches the gospel of shopping." That is the sort of nonsense one  expects to hear from libs…

  • Do We Deserve Better?

    It is perhaps only fitting that fiscally irresponsible people should get a fiscally irresponsible government.

  • I Lay in a Supply of Incandescent Light Bulbs

    Virginia Postrel writes, If you want to know why so many Americans feel alienated from their government, you need only go to Target and check out the light bulb aisle. Instead of the cheap commodities of yesteryear, you’ll find what looks like evidence of a flourishing, technology-driven economy. There are “ultrasoft” bulbs promising “softer soft…

  • The Upside of the Downturn

    Written a few years ago, this entry from the old blog merits reposting. As the economy stumbles, CD rates tumble, the stock market falters,  gas prices soar, and foreclosures mount, I look at the bright side: less development, fewer sales of State Trust Lands, less destruction of desert and wildlife habitat. A temporary respite from…

  • Just Say ‘No’ to Panhandlers

    What do you do when a beggar approaches you on the street? Do you give him money? I've given away food, but as a general rule it is foolish and wrong to give money to bums. Once, in downtown Phoenix, I came out of a rib joint with a box of luscious leftovers. A beggar…

  • Spend It Now or Pass It On?

    The quality of  his heirsMust give pauseTo him whose lootIs slated for their jaws. A rather more classical meditation on this theme we find in  Horace. Quis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae      tempora di superi? Cuncta manus avidas fugient heredis, amico      quae dederis animo.  Who knows if Jove who counts our score Will toss…

  • Big Government on the Brink

    We are in deep trouble as Robert Samuelson ably documents in this troubling piece.  So what does Nero Obama do?  He fiddles while Rome burns and its legions get mired in Libyan sand and other sinkholes of the  benighted and backward.  Even if Obama the Irresponsible and every worthless Democrat were sent packing we'd still be…

  • Money, Power, and Equality

     J. R. Lucas, "Against Equality," in Justice and Equality, ed.  Hugo Bedau (Prentice-Hall, 1971), pp. 148-149: Since men value power and prestige as much as the possession of wealth—indeed, these three `goods' cannot be completely separated—it is foolish to seek to establish an equality of wealth on egalitarian grounds. It is foolish first because it…

  • Samuelson on Social Security as Middle-Class Welfare

    Here.  Excerpt: Here is how I define a welfare program. First, it taxes one group to support another group, meaning it's pay-as-you-go and not a contributory scheme where people's own savings pay their later benefits. And second, Congress can constantly alter benefits, reflecting changing needs, economic conditions and politics. Social Security qualifies on both counts.…

  • Taxation: A Liberty Issue

    Despite their name, liberals seem uninterested or insufficiently interested in the 'real' liberties, those pertaining to property, money, and guns, as opposed to the 'ideal' liberties, those pertaining to freedom of expression. A liberal will go to any extreme when it comes to defending the right to express his precious self no matter how inane…

  • We Get What We Deserve

    It is perhaps only fitting that fiscally irresponsible people should get a fiscally irresponsible government. Before blaming stupid legislators and greedy lenders, take a hard look into the mirror.  At least the person staring back at you is a person over whose behavior you have some control.

  • The New Red Menace

    Debt.  I predict that the reality-denying utopians of the Left will speak instead of a 'New Red Scare.'