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Is centrally directed emergency response and recovery from a natural disaster the only viable option anymore? This belief “seems to be faulty,” judging from the poor response from the federal government and the comparatively effective response from private retailers after Hurricane Katrina, argues economist Steven Horwitz, Ph.D. “Big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart were extraordinarily successful in providing help to damaged communities in the days, weeks, and months after the storm,” he declared. (1-3) Bolding below is by author (MRO). The assumption behind centralized government (especially federal) solutions, such as financing and directing both the response to and recovery from natural disasters is the belief that “the private sector’s profit motive would thwart the charitable impulses generally regarded as essential for effective relief,” says Dr. Horwitz. However, “the private sector’s involvement in the response to Hurricane Katrina…has provided strong reasons to be skeptical of this argument,” he cautions. Indeed, many private firms responded effectively to Katrina, but Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, was exemplary. (4) Wal-Mart “arrived in the New Orleans area long before FEMA and had the supplies that the community needed,” writes Horwitz. “Both President Aaron Broussard and Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish in suburban New Orleans lauded Wal-Mart’s work. In an appearance on Meet the Press, Broussard noted that Wal-Mart had delivered three trailers of water only to be turned back by FEMA and quoted Lee in saying, “if [the] American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn’t be in this crisis.” (5) The Securities and Exchange Commission, in a civil complaint, said it was an ongoing $50 billion swindle, and asked a judge to seize the firm and its assets. "Our complaint alleges a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions," said Andrew M. Calamari, associate director of enforcement in the SEC's New York office. In a separate criminal complaint, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Theodore Cacioppi said Mr. Madoff's investment advisory business had "deceived investors by operating a securities business in which he traded and lost investor money, and then paid certain investors purported returns on investment with the principal received from other, different investors, which resulted in losses of approximately billions of dollars." ... Mr. Madoff's Fairfield Sentry Ltd., a hedge fund run by Madoff Investment Services to invest in shares in the S&P 100, claimed to be up 5.6% through the end of November, a period when the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was down 37.65%. In October, Fairfield Sentry was said to be down 0.06%, a month when the S&P 500 lost 16.8%. Since its inception in December 1990, the fund averaged a 10.5% annual return, according to fund documents. Such returns sparked widespread skepticism for years on Wall Street. News stories raised questions about his approach. A number of traders suggested his firm could be buying shares for its own account just before it filled orders for customers, an illegal act called front-running. In 2001, Mr. Madoff told Barron's that charges of front-running were "ridiculous." An executive in the securities industry, Harry Markopolos, contacted the SEC's Boston office in May 1999, urging regulators to investigate Mr. Madoff. Mr. Markopolos continued to pursue his accusations over the past nine years, he said in an interview on Thursday, and according to documents he sent to the SEC that were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. "Bernie Madoff's returns aren't real and if they are real, then they would almost certainly have been generated by front-running customer order flow from the broker-dealer arm of Madoff Investment Securities LLC," Mr. Markopolos wrote to the SEC in November 2005. Labels: economics Labels: 2008 presidential candidates Labels: homosexuality Labels: freedom of speech A Minnesota appeals court today rejected Sen. Larry Craig's (R-Idaho) latest effort to withdraw his guilty plea, 18 months after he was arrested in a Minneapolis airport bathroom during an undercover sex sting. Since pleading guilty in August 2007 to disorderly conduct charges, Craig has tried to pull back that plea, arguing that his behavior was not illegal and that he was pressured into the plea by police. The Hennepin County District Court denied that petition in October 2007, and the Minnesota state Court of Appeals today affirmed that decision. In his appeal, Craig argued that the district court fundamentally erred in its decision, that the state's disorderly conduct statute was unconstitutionally broad, and that his behavior in the airport bathroom stall should be considered legally protected speech. The Appeals Court rejected all three arguments. "Appellant has not shown that the district court abused its discretion in denying his petition to withdraw his guilty plea, and neither he nor amici have shown that the disorderly conduct statute is unconstitutionally overbroad," wrote Edward Toussaint Jr., the appeals court's chief judge. Toussaint added that even if Craig's actions in the stall were considered speech, they can be restricted because they invaded the "privacy interest" of a "captive audience" -- in this case, the undercover officer in the neighboring stall. Labels: Idaho politics “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening, ” Obama told reporters today in Chicago. “It’s a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.” Labels: 2008 presidential candidates Labels: economics The firearms massacres that have periodically caused shock and horror around the world have been dwarfed by the Mumbai shootings, in which a handful of gunmen left some 500 people killed or wounded. For anybody who still believed in it, the Mumbai shootings exposed the myth of “gun control”. India had some of the strictest firearms laws in the world, going back to the Indian Arms Act of 1878, by which Britain had sought to prevent a recurrence of the Indian Mutiny. The guns used in last week’s Bombay massacre were all “prohibited weapons” under Indian law, just as they are in Britain. In this country we have seen the irrelevance of such bans (handgun crime, for instance, doubled here within five years of the prohibition of legal pistol ownership), but the largely drug-related nature of most extreme violence here has left most of us with a sheltered awareness of the threat. We have not yet faced a determined and broad-based attack. ... Rhetoric about standing firm against terrorists aside, in Britain we have no more legal deterrent to prevent an armed assault than did the people of Mumbai, and individually we would be just as helpless as victims. The Mumbai massacre could happen in London tomorrow; but probably it could not have happened to Londoners 100 years ago. In January 1909 two such anarchists, lately come from an attempt to blow up the president of France, tried to commit a robbery in north London, armed with automatic pistols. Edwardian Londoners, however, shot back – and the anarchists were pursued through the streets by a spontaneous hue-and-cry. The police, who could not find the key to their own gun cupboard, borrowed at least four pistols from passers-by, while other citizens armed with revolvers and shotguns preferred to use their weapons themselves to bring the assailants down. Today we are probably more shocked at the idea of so many ordinary Londoners carrying guns in the street than we are at the idea of an armed robbery. But the world of Conan Doyle’s Dr Watson, pocketing his revolver before he walked the London streets, was real. The arming of the populace guaranteed rather than disturbed the peace. That armed England existed within living memory; but it is now so alien to our expectations that it has become a foreign country. Our image of an armed society is conditioned instead by America: or by what we imagine we know about America. It is a skewed image, because (despite the Second Amendment) until recently in much of the US it has been illegal to bear arms outside the home or workplace; and therefore only people willing to defy the law have carried weapons. In the past two decades the enactment of “right to carry” legislation in the majority of states, and the issue of permits for the carrying of concealed firearms to citizens of good repute, has brought a radical change. Opponents of the right to bear arms predicted that right to carry would cause blood to flow in the streets, but the reverse has been true: violent crime in America has plummeted. Labels: gun rights Labels: cars
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Wal-Mart's Virtues
After my discussion of how Wal-Mart's $4 prescriptions were causing competitive response at Albertson's, a reader pointed out that in the aftermath of Katrina, Wal-Mart and Home Depot did a better job than FEMA of helping with recovery. Another reader pointed me to this discussion:
Wal-Mart Way in Disaster Preparedness/Response: Policy Implications
Biot Report #569: November 27, 2008 
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The major media and political actors focused on the failures of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), while the successes of the private sector received much less publicity after Katrina. The effective responses mounted by the private sector deserve greater consideration, asserts Dr. Horwitz. “During the Katrina relief efforts, the more successful organizations were those that had the right incentives to respond well and could tap into the local information necessary to know what that response should be” (more below). (3) I am not suggesting that we abolish FEMA and other government agencies responsible for disaster relief. Private relief organizations, such as the Salvation Army and the Red Cross, also performed valuable functions as well. But it should be no surprise that for-profit institutions did a better job than the federal government on this. To quote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776):
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard for their own interest.
Self-interest is sometimes not enough to solve all social problems, but we should never lose sight of the fact that the profit motive (even if "concern for the community" is the stated reason for doing good) is more certain to motivate than a bureaucrat doing his job--not in the case of Bush's useless FEMA flunkie, Mayor Nagin, and the useless of Governor of Louisiana, not doing his job.
A Massive Ponzi Scheme
A guy who apparently defrauded investors of $50 billion --and was turned in, apparently, by his sons, who worked for the same firm. From the December 12, 2008 Wall Street Journal:
Now, before the left starts whining about those nasty Republicans:According to a 1986 report in a monthly financial magazine, Financial World, titled "The Highest Paid People on Wall Street," Mr. Madoff owned three homes and kept a yacht moored in the Bahamas. The report said he earned $6 million in 1985. Property records show at one point he owned a home in Montauk, N.Y., and paid more than a $1 million in annual taxes. He has made major donations to Democratic candidates and organizations.
The Democratic Party for a very long time has been largely a tool of a lot of people like this. Do you remember Ken Lay's involvement with Senator Kerry's wife? I thought not. And the scandal that peripherally touched Senator McCain in the early 1980s? Those who were most deeply involved in the Keating Five scandal--were Democrats. That's part of why Democrats continually rail about "Republican fat cats"--to distract attention from the fact that the Democrats are at least as much the party of fat cats as Republicans.
I've always been a bit nervous about having "investment advisors" helping me manage my wealth--and it is because of scandals like this. I don't do as well as I might with someone competent managing it--but I don't have sleepless nights wondering if my advisor is stealing my wealth, and giving it to the Democratic National Committee.
The Bailout
Some conservatives are beginning to refer to the bailout of the Big Three as "the UAW bailout." They are making a good point with this--but as stock market journalist Jim Cramer (not a relative, to my knowledge) points out:Let's stop the pussyfooting. Chrysler has to go. We have to take out capacity. The people who own Chrysler knew what they were getting into. They were the most sophisticated of investors: Cerberus. Every time CEO Bob Nardelli came on TV before now, he told us Chrysler was doing great. He says he is willing to sacrifice the upside and give it to the government. I say, terrific, but you know what? I offer Cerberus the upside and the downside, but no money. If we care about the workers, wipe out the investors, cancel their debt and sell it all to Ford (F Quote - Cramer on F - Stock Picks), which seems to have a clue and is not desperate.
andOn a somewhat related point, here's one more reason the government should let Chrysler fend for itself as it bails out the other two members of the big three: Daimler – that's Mercedes Benz – still owns close to 20% of Chrysler. So we'd not just be bailing out Cerberus, a big fat private equity fund, we'd also be bailing out a foreign automaker. A little disgraceful, don't you think?
Updating a Bogus Email
If you get an email that purports to explain the 2008 election results based on research done by Professor Joe Olson of Hamline University School of Law--be aware that:
1. It first appear after the 2000 election.
2. My friend Professor Joe Olson is not the source of it.
Details are here. Apparently Rush Limbaugh mentioned this email on his radio show recently, and has now posted a retraction.
I Guess Their Jobs Are Safe
I often find Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality a bit too strident for my tastes, but there's considerable wit and truth to his most recent comment concerning the mass protest of homosexuals "calling in gay" to protest the voters of California voting for Proposition 8:Now they’re staying home from work and “calling in gay” to protest Prop 8. But wasn’t it just a short time ago when the homosexual lobby was moaning that all across America people could be fired “just because they’re gay”? Now they’re taunting their employers using their gayness. Gee, it looks like their jobs are pretty safe!
He does ask an important question: if an employer fires someone for "calling in gay" instead of showing up to work, is that discrimination? Obviously not--just like if, when I still had a regular employer, I had "called in white" instead of scheduling a vacation day.
The First Amendment Swallowing The Prostitution Law
Professor Volokh points to some decisions in which the courts have found that film makers producing adult movies can't be prosecuted for paying actors to have sex (which is a violation of the prostitution staute), on the grounds that "the production of sexually explicit but non-obscene videos is constitutionally protected." Therefore, prostitution laws, because they conflict with the making of adult movies where the actors have sex, can't be applied to film makers. Adult movie makers are exempted from such laws.
I've long wondered why some clever pimp didn't just set up a "studio" in Los Angeles called, "Make Your Own Porn!" where customers pay $200 to someone who sets up a camera while an "actress" performs with the customer. If the police interfere, just scream, "People v. Freeman! The California Supreme Court says that this is constitutionally protected!" And indeed, someone in the comments on Professor Volokh's article makes that same point.
Why doesn't the First Amendment swallow up animal cruelty laws if the cruelty is in the course of making a movie? The same reasoning is in play. Sure, you could simulate animal cruelty for a film--you don't have to actually make an animal suffer to make it appear so on film--in the same way that you can simulate sex.
"But it wouldn't be as realistic!" the film maker and ACLU would respond. And that's true in both cases. And the same would be true for child pornography, too.
The fact is that People v. Freeman and similar cases come to the conclusion that they based on two false ideas: that sexually explicit materials are protected under the First Amendment (a position that seems not to have been noticed for a century and a half after its adoption, when publishing of a variety of indecent, scandalous, and libelous writings were punished as crimes); and that any law that interferes with production of sexually explicit materials but which is not targeted at speech, is therefore suspect.
Here's an analogy that will make clear how absurd this is. The Second Amendment protects a right to keep and bear arms. Where I live in Boise County, there's a resident who is quite upset at the moment because someone at 2:00 AM decided to deliver the coup de grace to an old Acura near her home. If they ever find the idiot who did this, and charge him with disturbing the peace, can he make the argument that the Second Amendment and Idaho Const. Art. I, sec. 11 exempt him from punishment? The disturbing the peace statute isn't aimed specifically at guns--and it is clear that the right to keep and bear arms was not a general guarantee that any possible use of a gun is protected.
Another Rejection
Nelson Current decided my book on the history of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill wasn't a good fit for them. I still haven't found an agent. I guess I'll have to start going over lists of publishers next, hoping to find one that's interested.
Larry Craig, Loser
Senator Larry "Happy Feet" Craig just lost another appeal. From the Washington Post:
The "I didn't know I was doing pleading guilty" argument I might accept from some guy with a limited education. But Larry Craig, while foolish, isn't stupid, nor is uneducated. He could have argued that his arrest was a "misunderstanding," and doing the "Aw shucks, this doesn't happen in public restrooms in Idaho" might have worked. A Minneapolis jury might have given Craig the benefit of the doubt for such an argument; pleading guilty pretty well blows out that argument.
Almost the Perfect Storm Of Corrupt Politics
No, that would be if the Governor of Illinois offered Obama's Kenyan birth certificate--that would make it perfect! But this story is as dirty as it gets. Governor Rod Blagojevich gets arrested by the FBI for, among other things, holding up state funding in exchange for campaign contributions, seeking to sell Obama's soon-to-be vacant U.S. Senate seat. From the December 9, 2008 ChicagoTribune:Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested by FBI agents on federal corruption charges Tuesday morning.
Among the astonishing statements in Blagojevich's incredibly foul mouthed wiretaps is that Obama wasn't willing to give him anything but gratitude for appointing Obama's choice to Obama's old seat. Now, before you get too high and mighty about Obama's integrity--remember that everyone who has been following this has known for months that the Department of Justice was pursuing official corruption involving Blagojevich, as I mentioned in late September. Obama's refusal to pay Blagojevich at least shows that Obama isn't as stupid as Blagojevich--who had to have known he was being wiretapped.
Blagojevich and Harris were arrested simultaneously at their homes at about 6:15 a.m., according to Frank Bochte of the FBI. Both were transported to FBI headquarters in Chicago.
In one charge related to the appointment of a senator to replace Barack Obama, prosecutors allege that Blagojevich sought appointment for himself as secretary of Health and Human Services in the new Obama administration, or a lucrative job with a union, in exchange for appointing a union-preferred candidate.
Another charge alleges Blagojevich and Harris conspired to demand the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members responsible for editorials critical of him in exchange for state help with the sale of Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs baseball stadium owned by Tribune Co.
But now it turns out that Obama claims to have had no contact with Blagojevich about his successor:President-elect Barack Obama said he was unaware of the criminal investigation into an alleged attempt by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to trade an appointment for Obama’s Senate seat for financial gain.
While one of Obama's advisors claimed otherwise recently:But on November 23, 2008, his senior adviser David Axelrod appeared on Fox News Chicago and said something quite different.
There is so much crooked about Chicago politics--and yet, somehow, Obama rose up through this cesspool, without any of the corruption sticking to him? Right.
While insisting that the President-elect had not expressed a favorite to replace him, and his inclination was to avoid being a "kingmaker," Axelrod said, "I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."
The Virtues of Wal-Mart
Yes, they do have some. I went to pick up a thyroid prescription for my wife yesterday at Albertson's. At first, it was going to be $14 and change (because it is under the copayment amount for Blue Cross). Then, the Albertson's prescription computer reduced it to $4--because that's what the same prescription costs at Wal-Mart, and Albertson's has decided that they don't want to lose prescription customers (who also buy groceries) to Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart claims that the list of medications on their $4 list "represents up to 95 percent of the prescriptions written in the majority of therapeutic categories." (That's rather weasel worded, isn't it?) It doesn't include Lipitor, presumably because that isn't a generic yet--but it does seem to include an astonishing number of drugs, but I do see a lot of drugs that some people will be on for life, and that are important bipolar and antipsychotic treatments: HALOPERIDOL and LITHIUM CARBONATE, for example.
I've got a lot to say against Wal-Mart, but when you make medications that are necessary for many people to live--and others to maintain their sanity--for $4 a month, that can cover a host of other sins. Remember that, the next time that labor unions decide that Wal-Mart is the source of all evil in the world.
Second Avenue
There are songs that I can remember from the 1970s but that you never hear on oldies stations. One of the CDs that I bought for my commute to Bend included Tim Moore's recording of an Art Garfunkel song, "Second Avenue." I can't recall ever hearing Garfunkel's recording of it, but I can't imagine that it could be more bittersweet than Moore's recording. The lyrics:Since we can no longer make it, girl,
I found a new place to live my life.
It's really no place at all,
Just a hole in the wall, you see.
It's cold and dusty but I let it be,
Livin' here without you,
On Second Avenue.
And since our stars took different paths,
I guess I won't be shavin' in your looking glass.
Guess my old friendly grin,
Must have started to dim, somehow,
And I certainly don't need it now,
Still, I keep smiling through,
On Second Avenue.
I can still see you standing
There on the third-floor landing.
The day you visited we hardly said a word.
Outside it was rainin',
You said you couldn't be stayin,
And you went back to your flowers and your birds.
Since we can no longer see the light
The way we did when we kissed that night,
Then all the things that we felt,
Must eventually melt and fade,
Like the frost on my window pane
Where I wrote, "I Am You,"
On Second Avenue.
Why The Big Three Need A Bailout
It isn't just labor costs that are sinking the Big Three. But this report from the Heritage Foundation points out that according to the Big Three's own financial reports, they are paying about $70 per hour for workers, including retirement and health insurance:The United Auto Workers (UAW) wants Congress to bail out General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler to prevent their undergoing restructuring in bankruptcy proceedings. In bankruptcy, a judge could order union contracts to be renegotiated to reflect competitive realities. Many analysts have objected that hourly autoworkers at the Big Three are some of the most highly paid workers in America, costing the Big Three over $70 an hour in wages and current and future benefits. All taxpayers should not be taxed to preserve the affluence of a few.
I like GM cars. I was favorably impressed with the Ford Escape that I rented recently. But the harsh reality is that the Big Three claim that they need a bailout--while other companies that make cars in America do not. Assembly line work isn't pleasant. But at the same time, it isn't difficult to find people capable of doing it, as BMW, Mercedes, Subaru, Honda, and a number of other foreign companies building cars in America have demonstrated.
Some observers argue that UAW members do not actually earn this much.[1] They argue this figure includes the cost of benefits paid to current retirees as well as wages and benefits paid to current workers and that the actual hourly earnings of current UAW members are much lower. This is a mistaken interpretation of the financial data released by the Detroit automakers.
Cash Compensation
Chart 1 shows the average hourly compensation for UAW workers and the average compensation for all private sector workers. These figures are based upon calculations by the Detroit automakers themselves as published in SEC filings, their annual reports, and other materials. According to briefing materials prepared by General Motors, "The total of both cash compensation and benefits provided to GM hourly workers in 2006 amounted to approximately $73.26 per active hour worked."
At an average of $70 per hour, a government bailout to save the Big Three and the UAW's lucrative contracts would be a redistribution of wealth upward. If the Republican Party had a lick of sense, they would be emphasizing this loudly--that a bailout is taking money from people whose employers are spending $30/hour (including benefits) so that people making $70/hour don't have to cut back their lifestyle.
This Appeared in the Times of London
There's still a long ways until the flying pigs happen, but this is an amazing piece:
Even more gratifiying, while most of the supportive comments by readers come from the United States, many come from Britons, Australians, and Canadians!
Snow, Roads, & 4WD
We had a bit of snow this morning--just a heavy dusting, really, but here you can see the advantages of asphalt instead of gravel. With two hours of sunlight (and still below freezing air temperatures), the asphalt driveway was completely clear, while everything else was still rich in snow.
Click to enlarge
I went down to Oasis Motors in Boise today because they had a 2006 Subaru for sale for $3995. I am really impressed how many cars with more than 100,000 miles on them are in surprisingly good shape. I can remember a time when most cars with 100,000 miles looked like they had been beaten to a pulp.
The Subaru? It had 168,000 miles on it. You could see that it was used, of course. The lever that controls the driver's seat recline was broken, and the seat itself was a bit broken down. The front passenger interior door panel was sagging a bit. But the car drove well, no rattles, and it had plenty of guts.
While there, I drove a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 137,000 miles that they also wanted $3995 for--and it looked really good! If you had told me that it had 37,000 miles on it, I would not have questioned you. The seats were firm. No tears or obvious wear in the leather upholstery. Performance was fine; no rattles. The only real concern that I had was that the suspension didn't seem as well damped as I am used to in a car. (Shock absorbers need replacing, perhaps?)
A couple years back, when my son was looking for his first car, I was commiserating with a good friend of my generation about how there were effectively no $300 used cars anymore. The cheapest car that my son looked at I called the Frankenstein Rabbit, because the seller acknowledged that he had pieced it together from several different Rabbits (not all the same year). It didn't bolts sticking out the sides, or a scar on the front grille, but it should have! And that car was $1000!
The reason that there aren't any really cheap but good used cars anymore seems to be because cars last a heck of a lot longer than they did when I was young. A car with 137,000 miles on it back when I was young would never have been mistaken for near new.
Still, I do find myself cringing at spending $3995 for a car that is only going to be used three months of the year--and maybe not even that, depending on how mild this winter turns out to be. I suspect that I could get the car for $3500, spend $300 a year for insurance, and perhaps $300 for replacement shocks. For $4100, I could rent a small 4WD from Enterprise for 15 weeks--and have no maintenance or repair bills to worry about at all (and almost no chance of getting stranded somewhere between here and Bend). Realistically, I could probably get by with a small front wheel drive car for most of that period, at about half the rental charge.
Solar Cremation Patent
Patent number 4781174 abstract:Heat rays of the sun are concentrated and focussed by means of a reflective and/or lenticular device at a focal point for the purpose of the cremation of corpses, and their reduction to ashes thereby, either as a system per se or in combination with various ancillary buildings, equipment and facilities, more particularly an auditorium structure for conducting a funeral service or the like and from which a corpse may be transferred to the focal point of the concentrating device preferably by elevating the corpse through an opening in the ceiling and/or roof of the structure.
A partial list of the citations (other patents cited by this patent) includes 2909171 SOLAR COOKER. Yum!
