Bernanke, Banks, and Catastrophically Shifting Tectonic Plates

Banking reforms:

President Obama wants to impose new regulations on banks to halt what he calls “risky lending.” President Obama has once again demonstrated his complete lack of understanding of the fundamental causes of the recession. It was his Democratic presidential predecessor Bill Clinton’s administration which encouraged Fannie and Freddy to give loans to people who couldn’t necessarily pay them back (subprime loans), all in the interest of “fairness” and equality. It was George Bush who continued that policy. To blame the banks for the housing bubble and its subsequent burst is like blaming your car for getting arrested for drunk driving; risky lending was encouraged by government, so Obama blames the free market and offers more government as the solution. As a result, the American stock market, particularly in reference to those bank stocks, has plunged deeper into the toilet for three days straight so far.

And Obama wonders why people are so goddamn angry with his administration after his first year in office.

Haiti:

Over 100,000 people are confirmed dead in Haiti from the recent devastating earthquake. The human suffering in that country is indescribable and unimaginable for most Americans.

The subpar infrastructure has been rendered completely useless, save for the main airport, which normally saw air traffic of about 80 planes a day (or something like that). The US military has increased the efficiency of the airport, and it now is processing about 130 planes, I believe. And here in America, people are getting all angry at the US military, wondering why it’s taking so long to distribute aid and why that aid is having little effect. Celebrities didn’t miss a chance to thrust themselves dutifully into the spotlight to demonstrate their humanitarianism by encouraging economically-bankrupt America to throw money at Haiti.

So in a country with no working infrastructure, hundreds of thousands of dead, an ineffectual government, a roaming gaggle of criminals who escaped from the wrecked prison by the Haitian presidential palace, and a frantically desperate population, our solution is to send wheelbarrows full of money? That’s ridiculous. None of you should donate a penny to Haiti. Haitians need care packages; Haitians need food, water, medicine and other medical supplies, and construction equipment. Haitians aren’t really going to be able to run to their local Home Depot or Rite Aid to pick this stuff up, either. Americans should hold on to their dwindling dollars and organize shipments of actual supplies. Americans should volunteer their skills and physically help out in Haiti, if they can. But I fear that Haiti will become a black hole of donations, with millions of dollars going in and no progress coming out. So save your money, America, and give some help to Haiti that they can actually use.
If Americans want to donate money to a cause, they should donate to their local tent city, or something similar.

Ben Bernanke:

Ol’ Ben is expected to pick up the confirmation for a second run in the Federal Reserve. His supporters, including President Obama, praise his actions during his first tenure, saying that he staved off a potentially devastating depression and mitigated the effects of the recession. As if keeping interest rates artificially low (almost at zero) for this long, printing more fiat currency backed by nothing, and bottomless quantitative easing is going to help us in the long run. What good is a rallying stock market or a small boost in consumer confidence if our currency isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on?