Friday Morning Ramble: The #Shutdown Edition

The US Government wasn’t the only thing partially shut down these last seven days. My back came out in sympathy too, thus no Ramble last week. So here’s a few morsels of interest spotted out in the wild these last two weeks…

Just as it says.
US Government Shutdowns, a Brief History. – Chris Mayer, MONEY MORNING AUSTRALIA 
A Brief History of the Federal Debt Limit – HISTORY NEWS NETWORK 
 Shutdown? It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. – NOT PC
Leftist Fanatics Responsible for Government Shutdown – GEORGE REISMAN’S BLOG
Who Shut Down the Government? – Thomas Sowell, TOWN HALL

“The blame for the shutdown belongs on those who want to spend beyond all limits".”
The Governmental Shutdown – Harry Binswanger, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“For the greater part of human history, leaders who were in a position to exercise power were accountable for their actions… The problem we are faced with today is that our political and (frequently) business leaders are not being held responsible for their actions.”
A Corrupt System that Rewards Stupidity – Marc Faber, DAILY RECKONING

But it’s not even a real shutdown, is it.
13% Spending Reduction Is Called a Shutdown? – Charles Anderson, OBJECTIVIST INDIVIDUALIST
It’s what’s *not* shut down that really matters – Peter Cresswell, NOT PC

“To career politicians like Harry Reid, even cutting back on government amounts to ‘anarchy’.”
Harry Reid’s Conspiracy Theory – Michael Hurd, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.
Ten Ways Republicans Are Giving President Obama A Taste Of His Own Alinsky – FORBES

“Yep, it's all about credit and credibility. Cash in your previously earned credit and hope for the best. But at the rate things are going, a few more years of this and the US will have little credibility left. Once your credibility is gone, so is the money.”
Why US Debt Dynamics Could Get Ugly – Greg Canavan, DAILY RECKONING, AUSTRALIA

The real threat is the debt, says Peter Schiff, not the ceiling.

“Those on the Left who decry free trade agreements like the TPP should remember that before wealth can be redistributed, it must first be created.
Chris Trotter speaks some sense on FTAs – Chris Trotter, WHALE OIL

Have they considered it could be these two reasons, and more? After all, as the man says in the comments thread, “Before you can have the ‘expectations of future profits,’ you need an inelastic supply of housing.”
Westpac economists say expectation of future profits - not a supply shortage - is main reason for soaring Auckland house prices – David Hargreaves, INTEREST.CO.NZ

Would-be investors in Christchurch’s CBD are becoming non-investors in droves. Call it the result of regime uncertainty…
Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion, October 2013 - media release – NZIER

“…the importance of regime uncertainty should be manifest to economists even as I have presented it. They need only think about it.”
Thinking Is Research, Too! – Robert Higgs, INDEPENDENT REVIEW

Still, if non-investors in the CBD prefer investing away from the CBD, looks like your government is happy to step in. UPDATE from commenter Mark: “The headline of the linked article (and I'm afraid your summary of it) is a bit misleading. The significant story is that the CCDU are abandoning the worst of their restrictions on development on Chch retail blocks in the former CBD, and now letting individuals owners get on and do their own thing to a greater degree. i.e. it's good, not bad news.”
(The comments are particularly encouraging.  It seems that the govt’s thuggish top-down response to the earthquakes is providing an object lesson on the futility of central planning, and this is even becoming a mainstream view in Chch.)
Government steps in for city mall project – STUFF

The move towards Part II of the governments #SurveillanceState starts soon.
TICS and you – Steffan Browning, FROG BLOG

The government’s ultra fast fibre network is already obsolete.
Solving the Internet Capacity Crunch: First Demonstration of a Multicore Fiber Network – SCIENCE DAILY

“The current rules let Heritage Boards designate buildings and effectively make them untouchable… We need to fix how we handle heritage buildings in New Zealand.”
Heritage Costs – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

If it’s not done by smoke and mirrors (about which I’m naturally suspicious), then here is one legitimate reason to applaud this government. Especially in this current worldwide economic and intellectual environment.
Crown accounts show surplus within reach – BEEHIVE

Recently … Wendell Cox wrote on New Zealand for New Geography. If only Nick Smith paid it more than just lip service.
“Unblocking Constipated Planning” in New Zealand – Wendell Cox, NEW GEOGRAPHY
Ten questions for Nick Smith on his Special Housing Areas – Peter Cresswell, NOT PC
The market for affordable housing is still broken – Peter Cresswell, NOT PC

“In Western news-making and opinion-forming circles, there’s a palpable reluctance to talk about the most noteworthy thing about modern Islamist violence: its barbarism, its graphic lack of moral restraint. This goes beyond the BBC's yellow reluctance to deploy the T-word – terrorism – in relation to the bloody assault on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya at the weekend. Across the commentating board, people are sheepish about pointing out the historically unique lunacy of Islamist violence and its utter detachment from any recognisable moral universe or human values.”
I'm sorry, but we have to talk about the barbarism of modern Islamist terrorism – Brendan O’Neill, TELEGRAPH

With Syria the trigger, “slowly, the map of the Middle East could be redrawn.”  The break is not likely to be clean.
How 5 Countries Could Become 14 – NEW YORK TIMES

Nice that we could help out. “A massive waste of American resources, accomplishing nothing but the weakening of America.”
Afghanistan: Taliban poised to retake power, Karzai says "the entire Nato exercise was one that caused Afghanistan a lot of suffering" – Robert Spencer, JIHAD WATCH

“An old Arab saying goes, ‘Cairo writes, Beirut publishes and Baghdad reads.’ These three capitals, along with Damascus, were long the hubs of culture and education in the Arab world.” But now the locus has shifted east.
 Gulf Cities Emerge As New Centres of Arab World – AL MONITOR

Fascinating.
A debate between Leonard Peikoff and Yaron Brook on the question: Who should, or should not, be allowed to immigrate into the US? Moderated by Amy Peikoff (Part 1 of 2) – PEIKOFF.COM

“It is only in state-subsidised theatre (whether the subsidy is direct, in the
form of grants, or indirect, as tax-deductible donations to universities or arts organisations) that the ideologue can hold sway, for he is then subject not
to the immediate verdict of the audience but to the good wishes of the granting
authority, whose good wishes he will, thus, devote his energies to obtaining.”
- David Mamet, quoted in “Elsewhere (100)”

John Lennon was not entirely happy with crybaby hippies and big-government worshippers. (Or, as Peter Namtvedt says, here’s “the John Lennon that the New Left evaded”:

“Each IPCC report seems to be required to conclude that the case for an international agreement to curb carbon dioxide has grown stronger. That is to say the IPCC report (and especially the press release accompanying the summary) is a political document, and as George Orwell noted, political language ‘is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.’”
Understanding The IPCC Climate Assessment – Richard Lindzen, CATO
What's wrong with the latest IPCC Report? It's full of lies – Don Easterbrook, POWERLINE

“…the idea of a consensus is a bit of a sham…”
Climate fairy tales – BISHOP HILL

“Andy Dessler and Jerry North, both Texas A&M professors and climate researchers, felt the need to lecture the rest of us about the certainty of manmade global warming, and that if we just trust the government, a solution will be found.
Yeah, they pushed my button…”
Roy Spencer: Dessler & North demonstrate why scientists appear clueless – JUNK SCIENCE

“Fundamentally, the IPCC has never had any solid evidence of measurable man-made global warming caused by man's emissions of carbon dioxide.”
The Anti-Science IPCC Global Warming Report 5 – Charles Anderson, OBJECTIVIST INDIVIDUALIST
What the New IPCC Global Warming Projections Should Have Looked Like – Patrick Michaels & Paul Knappenberger – CATO

This complete lack of warming through most of the IPCC’s history has led them to 95% certainty that humans are heating the world out of control.
No Warming For 70% Of The IPCC’s History – Steven Goddard, REAL SCIENCE

Still, “the latest IPPC report dials down the alarm on so many scares.”
IPCC not so confident we’re about to face catastrophes – ANDREW BOLT’S BLOG

It’s clear science journalists need some help.
Six questions the media should be asking the IPCC – Bob Tisdale, JO NOVA

“A perfect example of Darwinism at work, and one we can only hope more climate catastrophists follow.
A climate catastrophism we should all support – ANDREW BOLT’S BLOG

He died forty years ago today. If he were alive today, it would have been his birthday  last week. And if he were alive today, and this were a sane world, we wouldn’t have the economic problems we have today. Here’s George Reisman’s birthday tribute to the best man never to win a Nobel Prize in Economics.
Ludwig von Mises: Defender of Capitalism  - GEORGE REISMAN’S BLOG

“…America today is in essentially the same state of economic and psychological depression as it was in the 1970's.  More importantly, it is in this position for fundamentally the same reasons…”
Obama Brings Back the Carter Malaise – Doug Reich, RATIONAL CAPITALIST

Socialism is a dead end -- always has been. Their leaders can easily deliver torture and misery, but never fresh food, clean water or toilet paper.
As socialist dream crumbles, Venezuelans find Nicolas Maduro 'a bad copy' of Chavez – TELEGRAPH

Can you make the poor rich by making the rich poor?
Confusion on income and poverty – Matt Nolan, TVHE

The real divide is between those who pay taxes and those who live off them.
A Fairytale of Two Cities – Myron Magnet, CITY JOURNAL

Labour productivity measures don’t tell us anything about how hard we’re working.
Low productivity isn’t lazy – Matt Nolan, TVHE

So Greece “cut spending with a cleaver and the next thing you know they are forecasting a return to economic growth. No riots, no blood in the streets, just a quiet reversal of fortune.”
Keynesian economics is such junk science – Steve Kates, CATALLAXY FILES

So much for another ongoing myth. ( Can someone tell, Stephen Kinsella, David Farrar, Francis Till … )
GAO Report Confirms No “Patent Troll” Litigation Problem – Adam Mossoff, CENTER FOR THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Former NZ Reserve Bank chairman Arthur Grimes says “the US Federal Reserve should try to stop a damaging cycle of booms and busts by breaking investors’ expectations that it will mop up after asset price bubbles burst…”
Fed should try to break boom-bust cycle, says ex-RBNZ chair – YAHOO FINANCE

“AUSTRALIANS are per capita the wealthiest people in the world on a median basis…”
Capitalism has worked out OK for Australia – Andrew Bolt, HERALD SUN

“Why learn economics? To know economics is to understand how the world works…. Without that understanding, much of the operation of society will remain mysterious.
    “Not only do you want to be the smartest person at the cocktail party, but your health and happiness are at stake. Maybe you’ve cracked open a few economics books, but quickly dozed off as the author sedated you with theory.
“What you need is a book that combines solid theory applied to today’s real-life problems. That book is …
Kel Kelly’s The Case for Legalizing Capitalism.” – Doug French, LAISSEZ FAIRE BOOKS

“Real wages have fallen by eighty seven percent since 1965, to the point that an engineer today makes less, measured in gold, than someone earning the minimum wage would have in 1965.” Thank you, central bankers.
Measured In Gold, The Story Of American Wages Is An Ugly One – Keith Weiner, FORBES

Can economic growth be pumped out with counterfeit capital? Well, no. The pool of real funding is only so big.
Economic growth and the pool of funding – Frank Shostak, AAS ECONOMICS

“The Federal Reserve is the largest player in the world's largest economy... and it's on a runaway train... funding government largesse and ensuring gridlock...” Click the link to see a great infographic.
Picturing The Dangers Of An All-Powerful Federal Reserve – ZERO HEDGE

"I used to think that Alan Greenspan was the worst Fed chairman we
ever had until Bernanke was appointed. He kind of let Greenspan
off the hook. My guess is that Janet Yellen will return the favour…”
- Peter Schiff

It’s a visual demonstration of “economy of scale.”
The Amazon Warehouses - IMGUR

Immigration + Welfare = Police State. So isn’t it encouraging that Australia (in denying immigrating NZers welfare) and now the UK, seem to be realising the problem.
End of free NHS care for migrants under new bill – TELEGRAPH
Immigration Plus Welfare State Equal Police State – George Reisman, MISES DAILY 
Welfare Shouldn’t Ruin Immigration Reform – Alex Nowrasteh, CATO

“England is the only country in the developed world where the generation approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest adults…”
The culture that is England – Tyler Cowen, MARGINAL REVOLUTION

Wonder why you’ve seen so few American tennis champs in recent years? Turns out, says Chris Lewis, the American tennis bureaucracy is afflicted with the same top-down problems that encouraged him to leave NZ.
How to Develop New American Tennis Stars – Chris Lewis, TENNIS CONSULT
Chris Lewis: Tall Poppy – NOT PC, 2005

A film, a script, and a Kickstarter.
Independent Objectivist Robert Tracinski offers script for Atlas Shrugged movie – Prodos, THINKER TO THINKER

Has modern particle physics reached a theoretical dead end?
Could the Higgs Nobel Be the End of Particle Physics? – SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

“One step therefore we might take to make classical music less boring again is simply for audiences to quit being so blasted reverential.”
The Awfulness of Classical Music Explained – Richard Dare, HUFFINGTON POST

Ten elegantly ingenious moving bridges, including this one in Gateshead:

Apparently I’m still a kid. But I do have a record player than plays The Clash’s London Calling without it skipping.
40 Things Every Self-Respecting Man Over 30 Should Own – BUZZFEED

But I only score 13 out of David Bowie’s top 100. (So I go back three spaces?)
How to Read Like Bowie - David Bowie's Top 100 Books – OPEN BOOK TORONTO

“"British Journal of Sports Medicine, September 2013, Current hydration guidelines are erroneous: dehydration does not impair exercise performance in the heat, Wall BA"  My advice, don't add water to your malt whisky!”
Excess Hydration Is Dangerous – NANNY KNOWS BEST

Running just for the sake of it is not just boring, but deadly. “Investigators who studied a group of recreational marathon runners have established that strenuous exercise such as running a marathon can damage the heart muscle.”
Running a Marathon Hard On Heart, Especially in Less Prepared Runners – SCIENCE DAILY

So maybe your dentist is wrong too? (With bonus Stanley Kubrick clip.)
The Flimsy Evidence for Flossing – NEWTON BLOG

“Science just gives facts, right? Our sense of meaning, in the big-picture, must derive from elsewhere. Right? Wrong.”
10 Sublime Wonders of Science – SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

“Researchers at a US lab have passed a crucial milestone on the way to their ultimate goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion.”
Nuclear fusion milestone – RYAN’S RANTINGS

“To all open letter writers,
First of all, hello. I've never met you, but I've been reading a lot of your open letters lately. Sinead O'Connor, just recently, you posted your third open letter to Miley Cyrus. That's about three too many…”
An Open Letter to Open Letter writers: Stop sending Open Letters – Stephen Marche, ESQUIRE

- See more at: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2013/10/an-open-letter-to-open-letter-writers-stop-writing-open-letters.html#sthash.bzTmsabq.dpuf

In architecture right now, “blobitechture” is the new black.
10-best examples of blobitecture named – ARCHITECTURE NOW

“Over the course of human history, many embarrassing events have occurred at Oktoberfest themed parties…”
Beer, bratwursts, brass bands and more cowbell – Oktoberfest – Neil Miller, MALTHOUSE BLOG

Don’t let this happen to your life…(but do click to enlarge)

Austrian economist Waltger Block debates monetarist Stephen Kirchner at a Mises event in Australia.
The debate was scheduled to be on the business cycle. However we also debated Mises’s views, Rothbard’s views, Milton Friedman’s views, The Federal Reserve and much more!”

A song for the physics Nobel Prize winners.

The concluding moments of an interview with Lindsay Perigo and a playful Pavarotti, with several takes reading from a handwritten script.

Tartini Violin Sonata in G minor ''Devil's Trill Sonata''

The science of music.

Chris Lewis’s daughter has got talent. No, really.

 

Hat tips Jeff Perren Novelist, Mike Early, Paul Litterick, MikeM, PhilBest, Hugh Pavletich, Gus Van Horn, SOLO, Peter Namtvedt, Geek Press, Quote Unquote, Home Paddock]

Thanks for reading,
Have a great weekend.
PC