regulation

Many’s the time I asked that of myself during his first two terms. We’re still living under the aftermath of goofy policies set in place by our boy Jerry. Aside from an early alliance with the public service unions and their constant demands for more for less, our then-Governor Brown cozied up to the environmentalists and curtailed water storage and dam building, guaranteeing the almost perpetual water shortages faced by parts of the state.

Jerry Brown also curtailed freeway construction, which has greatly contributed to the various traffic gridlocks here. But most of all, I remember him for his opposition to the death penalty and his soft ball approach to law enforcement and the penal system.

It may be argued that many of the infrastructure problems that we are faced with now had their birthing under Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown. I remember that unemployment was high in the state and construction was slow. Our Mr Brown did nothing to alleviate the job situation in the state, but did preside over the beginning of the exodus of business form the state by his insatiable appetite for regulation and taxation.

It is a trend which has continued to this very day and the economic debris-field you see before you, in this once most prosperous state in the union, is mute testimony to what awaits other states who are unwilling to face the new economic reality.

California is on the verge of, if not in fact, bankruptcy in all but name. Traditionally, as California goes, so goes the nation. I really hope not. For all you non-Californians out there, I wouldn’t wish this collection of nuts and fruitcakes on anyone else. It’s sad enough as it is, to watch the idiot shenanigans that pass for a legislative assembly here. Out of touch? Well, yeah. Just ask people all over this state who still can’t find jobs, or the ones whose companies are closing or moving away to friendlier states.

The exodus of jobs from the state that was presided over by Brown is still there, only now it’s a torrent. I don’t believe for one minute that Jerry Brown has any sort of an idea how to pull this state out of the depression it’s in. Now, Jerry has to pay the piper from the one group whose money got him elected in the face of a huge money challenge by Meg Whitman. Jerry long ago sold his political soul to the service unions. He’s their guy.

It’s the same unions that are going to be the objects of Jerry’s chopping block, because the citizens of California will rise up against his proposed tax increases in a special election to be held in June. Then, he may be forced to go to genuine deep cuts in agencies and departments, and cut the plethora of regulatory agencies that are choking the life out of business and product development in the state. Don’t look for him to to tackle the entitlement issue… I don’t think he has the courage for it. Not if he wants the unions to keep him in power, that is.

But don’t count on it. California will continue to be a foreign land for Conservative Republicans and business a while yet.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

The other day, I wondered why more tech-savvy lefties were not more outspoken against Michael Capuano's objectively dumb proposals for Internet use in the House. Matt Stoller has now spoken out pretty strongly against Capuano. He has followed up with a response to some internal criticism that's popped up on Open Left.

Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) was perfectly right in sounding the alarm about this. Even though the Capuano rules are technically a loosening of existing standards, they would create some very bad precedents, including a narrow focus on existing services like YouTube and an inherent distrust of advertising-supported Web startups.

For a minute, I was a little worried that we were seeing the tech-savvy Anti-Stupid Coalition balkanize into red and blue camps. What is the Anti-Stupid Coalition? It's a group of tech-savvy activists in both parties who will set aside party labels when one of our own does something objectively stupid with technology or government transparency. Republican online operatives like myself have been unafraid to speak out when the party isn't doing all it can to harness the medium. It's good to see that not every techno-progressive is circling the wagons around Capuano, as I initially feared.

But what strikes me about Stoller's rant against bureaucratic stupidity is that it could so easily have been uttered by a conservative "leave me alone" type:

Open Left's Chris Bowers provides some insight into the progressive's perception of the likely Democratic agenda for 2009...

In our attempts to build a large Democratic trifecta in Washington, D.C., what, exactly, are we fighting for? To answer that question, here is a comprehensive list of legislation that is certain to pass if Obama wins the White House, we pick up 20 more seats in the House, and 8 more seats in the Senate...

You can find the full list at his post.  Suffice it to say, from legislation that puts a thumb on the scale for Labor Unions to government price controls for health care to massive regulatory expansion, there's something there to worry everybody.....including elements of the Democratic coalition. 

But this point from Bowers should raise the most concern.

The most exciting bits are the positive, progressive feedback loops around increasing unionization (the employee free choice act) and election reform (D.C. voting rights, verified paper trails). These are laws that will make the country itself more progressive, thus building a progressive majority down the road. If we can get more of these, including sweeping media reform (about which we should be optimistic), real immigration reform, (about which I am not optimistic) and the progressive budget (which might just happen by 2011, if all goes well), then we will be on our way to a progressive majority in America that will last for an entire generation.

Policies that redistribute the media to liberal interests, make the public more dependent on liberal institutions and give the government more largesse to distribute to the public.  Policies that entrench Democratic power.

That's the agenda. 

You want to get some juice back.  It's time to start governing.  If there is any here, here the Justice Department should act swiftly and forcefully to restore faith in this administration.  Crossposted at RedMassGroup

I have suspected for a while that the price of oil is being artificially inflated by hedge fund managers and others. I had no proof so I haven't blogged about it. However it seems the Feds think there is something amiss with the oil futures markets. I believe that the hedge funds and other money mangers which control vast amounts of institutional i.e. union pension funds, and endowment wealth have used oil to make up for their losses in the subprime market.

"Federal regulators are six months into a wide-ranging investigation of U.S. oil markets, with a focus on possible price manipulation. more stories like this The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday said it started the probe in December and took the unusual step of publicizing it "because of today's unprecedented market conditions." Crude prices, which on Thursday hovered around $127 a barrel, have risen more than 42 percent since early December. Gasoline prices are nearing a national average of $4 a gallon, up from about $3.20 a year ago. The commission said details of the investigation remain confidential, but announced a handful of other initiatives designed to increase transparency of U.S. and international energy futures markets. For example, the CFTC said it will immediately require monthly reports from institutional investors who manage funds designed to mimic the price of crude oil and other energy futures. The goal, the agency said, is to identify the amount of such index trading and to "ensure that this type of trading activity is not adversely impacting the price discovery process." The CFTC also said it has reached an agreement with its British counterpart and InterContinental Exchange Inc.'s Futures Europe to expand surveillance of energy futures contracts with U.S. delivery points, including the benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude, which trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange...........

.........A Senate subcommittee investigation last year found that hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC, which collapsed in 2006 after losing more than $6 billion in natural-gas trades, had shifted its activities to ICE from the regulated Nymex to avoid trading limits, and that the "excessive speculation" raised homeowners' heating bills. Speculation has been cited as one on many factors contributing to surging petroleum prices, along with assumptions about new supplies, limited demand growth, possible supply disruptions overseas and the dollar's depressed value against other currencies."

Hopefully this action will help to stabilize prices. Even OPEC said they can't figure out why oil isn't 60-70 per barrel because based on supply and demand that is where it should be. Another completely unsubstantiated hunch, Soros has something to do with it. I thought he did during the spike of 2004 and think so now.