George Rebane

The turmoil in the financial sector has resulted in insane markets that swing +/- 5% in a day.  Today’s massive sigh of relief was the result of the US Govt indicating that it will put in place an oversight institution (remember the Resolution Trust Corporation) to make sure that more big financial companies don’t go the way of Lehman, Bear Stearns, AIG … .  I have no idea why this was good news to the markets.  No pundit yet seems to have realized that what this will create is an entire sector of tens (hundreds?) of Fannie Maes and Freddie Macs that promise private profits and public (taxpayer) risk.  And if that will not be the case, then the regulatory machinery constructed by the government will be a de facto nationalization of our credit markets, making them as responsive as arthritic mammoths to the dynamic needs of global credit.  The prescient in Dubai who are now building the world’s tallest buildings as the centerpieces of their new international financial center will grab the golden ring.  The pulse of the planet will then be driven from where sand dunes were recently decorated with camel dung.

The California Air Resources Board is about to put the last nail into the coffin of the late great commercial state of California – with added bonus that its example will spread across the rest of the land.  CARB has published its draft Scope Plan to implement the greenhouse emissions restrictions passed into law under AB32.  My fellow blogger Russ Steele and I have been tracking the growth of this economic monster that promises to become the final arbiter of ALL land-use in the state.  We are now in the gnashing of teeth and rending of garment stage for this is how the rubber of the climate change hysteria will hit your Main Street.  I have read the operative pieces of the Scope Plan and it has left me limp.  It claims that the plan’s implementation will actually do everything from stimulating California’s sagging economy, while creating more jobs for those without saleable skills, to curing toenail fungus.  The document itself was written for people with long-departed or congenitally absent critical thinking skills.  Its reasoning climbs a rickety scaffold firmly anchored, at best, to tenuous or absolutely unfounded “scientific” bases that are presented as revealed and received truth.  Its first target audience is the gaggle of functional idiots in the California legislature who will be charged with explaining it to their flocks when they return to their home districts.  I remind you, dear Reader, that no matter where you live in this yet bountiful land, the evil twin of AB32 will rise up in your state unless a stake is driven through its heart here in La-La-Land.  Given an ample supply of Dramamine, we will have more detail on the ludicrous errors of the Scope Plan in future postings.  You may here edify yourself from its original text.