The NOT PC week, to 24 October

Phew, a busy week here at NOT PC -- a week in which the pollies talked themselves up, the economy headed on down, and NOT PC was reconfirmed as the fifth most popular political blog in New Zealand.

And here's what you seemed to like here over the last seven days or so -- and oddly enough, it's mostly on the tanking economy and the numb nuts responsible for it, unable to explain it, or have no clue how to extricate us from it:

1. National Socialism
   National's "bold move" to "cleverly outflank Labour on economic policy" by socialising investment -- to allow Bill English to buy up New Zealand -- brings back memories of some dancing Cossacks, doesn't it? And makes it even clearer that a vote for National is now, without doubt, a vote for left wing socialism and State ownership.
2. A lot of contra-cyclical nonsense
   A "Keynesian-style spend-up as an economic stimulus" is not what the doctor should be ordering. It's a treatment that's worse than the disease.
3. REISMAN: It's Not Laissez Faire, Stupid!
   George Reisman is back from holiday, and he's written the most thorough review that I've yet seen of what caused the current crisis.  Read it.  That's an order.
4. Nasty, brutish - and as stupid as a political journalist
   Who knew that when alleged economist Paul Krugman got a Nobel award for earlier more rational work, the prestige of the Nobel would be used to promote his current theme: the alleged horrors of economic freedom; and his favourite prescription: the need for bigger, more interventionist government. Well, we all did really didn't we.  But who would have thought the leaders of bigger, more interventionist governments would move so quickly to embrace his prescription!"
5. More economic illiteracy in the wild, this time on "inflation"
   Despite Bernard Hickey's many virtues, he and his mainstream colleagues still don't have their head around what inflation actually is.  Which means they don't know the difference between a symptom and its cause, which means they can't see what caused the present problems.  But then, neither can the Reserve Bank.
6. Lockwood Small-hands
   Yep , everyone's had a crack at Blockwood. And there are few who deserve it more.
7. In defence of Joe the Plumber 
   A rare bit of colour in an otherwise colourless US campaign -- and no, that's not any kind of a pun -- Joe the Plumber seems to be "a thorough-going outlaw in the best sense of that term."

So yet again there's a fairly common theme there -- and with good reason methinks.  But don't forget the great art and architecture you might have missed, and whatever you do don't forget to check out this week's Objectivist blog roundup over at Rule of Reason.  It's bigger and better than ever before!

Enjoy your long weekend,
Peter Cresswell