A Trip Around the Horn - Fannie, GM, and that Peaceful Religion at Ground Zero

A random trip around the horn makes for a fun blog, but not if every spot I stop at around the horn leaves me disgusted.  Such is the case today.In Washington D.C. policymakers argued this week that the way to fix the largest debacle in the history of the United States Treasury (Fannie and Freddie) is to give them more power, lend them more money, and enable them to do more lending, all in an effort to artificially boost the asset prices of a housing sector that blew up the last time the government artifically boosted its asset prices.  If you think this stuff could be made up, let me know.  Let housing find its own bottom.  The government has to make good on the loans they have already backed, but they need to turn off the faucet - now.  Sell off the pieces of Fannie and Freddie that the private market wants, and do it tomorrow (there will be buyers at the right prices and with the portion of debt cleared that the government already is on the hook for).  When you are in a ditch, quit digging.  The fallacy that "housing prices must be boosted" is the fatal error underlying all of this.  Grossly overpriced assets have to be adjusted.  Ridding our economy of malinvestment is a good thing, not a bad thing.  Von Mises, why are all your modern followers such nutballs that no one is teaching this any more?I hope you all are prepared for the biggest bunch of propoganda you will ever see in your lives, because it is coming.  When General Motors completes their IPO later this year, the White House will have successfully swapped a large portion of the money the taxpayers put into the company with equity sold to shareholders around the world (shareholders that would not have paid $0.50 cents for the stock eighteen months ago).  The White House will take credit for this crime against humanity, claiming that their interventionist efforts saved jobs and saved society.  What the entire deal was, though, was one gigantic sleight of hand whereby powerful unions were illegally saved, and bondholders were decimated.  The final tally on this is a long ways away from being complete, but I am not sure if I am more disgusted by what they did, or how they shamelessly lie about it.Obama's comments about the mosque at Ground Zero are mystifying to those of us expecting the kind of political intellect he displayed in his campaign.  They are not mystifying to those of us who know him to be a multi-culturalist fraud.  I am shocked that he would commit an unforced error like this, but not surprised that he feels this way.  I would like him to talk about it more.  And I shudder at the idea of this thing ever being built in that location.Jerry Brown's commercial against Meg Whitman's track record at EBAY is another unforced error that gives me hope that the Democrats can be as stupid politically as the Republicans usually are.  Meg needs to exploit this, or she doesn't deserve to be Governor.I am jumping on the Carly Fiorina bandwagon with reckless abandon.  John Lennon once wrote a song saying, "Imagine there's no Barbara Boxer, its easy if you try" (and even if I have the words wrong, I sing it that way all the time).  Go Carly.It is tough to be encouraged at the present state of affairs.  But I have absolutely no doubt that America's best days are ahead of her, not behind her.  That statement alone alienates 50% of conservatives and 99% of liberals.  But don't short the stock of USA.  Paradigmatic changes in society come from moments like the ones we are in right now.