Tag Archives: politics

St Louis Fed Fails

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The St Louis Federal Reserve Bank is busily going woke (my term, not Belongia’s and Ireland’s). They describe the following failure of the St Louis Fed:

The Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis is in the early stages of creating an Institute for Economic Equity “to support an economy in which everyone can benefit regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or where they live,” with an emphasis on “economic outcomes experienced by historically marginalized groups.”

This is a two-pronged failure, and a double disaster if it comes to fruition. By its own description, the St Louis Fed’s IEE is racist and sexist at its core. Beyond that, by pushing outcomes rather than opportunities, the IEE is fundamentally socialist.

And what does the drive to create such an office say about the St Louis Fed’s president and board members?

Aiding and Abetting

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In response to the ransomware attack against JBS USA Holdings that briefly disrupted some of the company’s Australian and American operations, JBS paid the hackers $11 million—more than twice that paid by Colonial Pipeline in its cowardly reward to its attackers.

JBS paid those $11 million dollars in its own craven reward for its own privilege of having been hacked.

In many—most?—milieus, aiding and abetting a criminal in the performance of the criminal’s activities is a felony.

It needs to be one here, too. Rather than compensating ransomware hackers—which compensation is directly, if not solely, responsible for the current sharp rise in ransomware attacks—these criminals need a different sort of reward, one that withdraws current criminals from the board and that discourages others from deciding to play.

Yet More and Bigger Spending

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The House Problem Solvers Caucus, with 29 Progressive-Democrats and 29 Republicans, are proposing their own “infrastructure” bill—to the tune of $1.25 trillion dollars, more than double the Senate Republicans’ original proposal of some $570 billion (and which, in their own abject meekness, they exploded into a nearly trillion dollar supplication).

The Republicans in this “problem solver” gang are engaged in their own surrender to the spending and taxing Party.

Of course President Joe Biden (D) and his Congressional Party leadership aren’t negotiating in good faith—they don’t need to. They can hold out for everything in their original demand because they know they’ll get it.

A Latino Migration?

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It’s a distinct possibility, and it would be IMNSHO a good thing. William McGurn had some thoughts on this, citing a recent mayoral election in McAllen, TX, in which a Republican was elected for the first time ever. McGurn also noted that, in the 2020 Presidential election, nearby Zapata County voted Republican for the first time in 100 years when the county picked Warren G Harding. McGurn suggested that these might be the harbinger of a Latino migration from the (Progressive-)Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

Then McGurn offered some statistics from a National Republican Senatorial Committee survey of Latino likely voters in battleground states. Even accounting for the obvious potential of bias in the survey, the numbers are suggestive.

Asked to choose between two possibilities—Some people say free-market capitalism is the best form of government because it gives people the freedom to work and achieve and Other people say that socialism is the best form of government because it is more fair and equitable to working class people, 63% of respondents opted for the former, and only 17% went for the latter.

Other outcomes of the survey:

  • 67% are “very concerned” their kids “won’t have the same opportunities me and my family came here to find”
  • 58% said too many people in America are happy not to work and “just live off government assistance”
  • 80% percent agree that “public schools are failing”
  • 67% agree that too many Americans “are losing our traditional values centered on faith, family and freedom”
  • 57% “oppose Democrat efforts to pack the Supreme Court with liberal judges”
  • 72% agree “we should do what is necessary to control our southern border”
  • 65% oppose the Democrats’ “bill that would make voter ID illegal”
  • 50% agree that “many of the policies that Democrats say help all minorities actually end up hurting Hispanic families”

Even given the strong potential for bias in the survey, one aspect of its importance, McGurn noted, is that it was conducted during campaign season when then-candidate Biden was overtly pretending to be politically moderate.

A Question

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The Wall Street Journal had one regarding the several bills the Progressive-Democrats are taking up in the Senate now that Congress has returned from its extended long weekend vacation.

Will Senate Democrats be able to gain bipartisan support for any of their new initiatives?

The answer, of course, is No. Senate Progressive-Democrats aren’t interested in bipartisanship, so they aren’t looking for any. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY) and many of his fellow Progressive-Democrats have made this clear with

some Democrats…call for pressing ahead without Republicans. Democrats could pass tax and spending legislation with a simple majority, using a process called budget reconciliation….

And

Mr Schumer has made it clear Democrats are ready to go it alone if necessary on legislation, bringing bills to the floor that don’t have enough support to pass under current rules.

That’s an effort to put the Republicans on the record as voting against Progressive-Democrat priorities, but more importantly, it’s a move to discipline the few Progressive-Democrats who aren’t sufficiently far Left, pushing them to support ending the Senate’s filibuster.

The Progressive-Democrat “negotiations” in the Senate and the White House that are currently going on are a sham, just Progressive-Democrats filling a square to manufacture campaign talking points.