Reason Morning Links: Bankruptcy for the Automakers, Untaxed Income for the Texans, Sympathy for the Canadians

Jesse Walker | May 22, 2009

• The White House prepares to steer GM toward bankruptcy, and to offer it "just short of $30 billion in additional federal loans."

• Obama is expected to sign his credit card bill today. The unintended consequences watch starts Saturday.

• Former Bush officials cash in.

• Withdrawing from Iraq: the latest way to delay it.

• The Cheney/Obama partnership.

• Life in San Antonio's underground economy.

• Has Canada become a beacon of free markets? (For some historical context, see this classic from Jeet Heer.)

• A sharp essay on the myth of "virgin nature."

• Class and transportation subsidies.

• Business slogan of the day.

Comments

Nikola T|5.22.09 @ 8:43AM|#

Making your jail experience - better!


See how great exclamation points are! They make everything - better!

|5.22.09 @ 8:49AM|#

yo, fuck human hating wilderness creating urban elitists who use false ideas of nature to better control us.

|5.22.09 @ 8:51AM|#

average median family income

What meta-statistical beast be this?

Spartacus|5.22.09 @ 9:05AM|#

Another $30B for GM. I think a far better use of the money would be a federally sponsored Hookers and Blow Night for everyone. It would probably cost less, and we would get more out of it.

JP|5.22.09 @ 9:18AM|#

I think a far better use of the money would be a federally sponsored Hookers and Blow Night for everyone.

Can we trade Hooker and Blow Allowances? I'm likely to have unused Blow Allowances, while I will need additional Hooker Allowances to enable me to use my excess Hooker capacity.

Xeones|5.22.09 @ 10:12AM|#

Charles Mann's 1491 makes the case that a lot of the symptoms of "virgin wilderness" encountered by American pioneers -- such as the vast herds of buffalo, and flocks of passenger pigeons that could take literally days to pass overhead -- were actually population explosions resulting from the unbalancing removal of the main apex predator, i.e. Indians, from the ecosystem. He points to research that shows that even the biodiversity of the Amazon Jungle was selected for and cultivated by the people who lived there. Fascinating book.

|5.22.09 @ 10:18AM|#

• Withdrawing from Iraq: the latest way to delay it.

Hi there Obama fans. I told you so! Nyah, nyah, nyah. Itold you so a long time ago, but did you listen? Nooooo. You swallowed the pretty rhetoric hook line and sinker.

I'll tell the troops propping up the Iraqi government into the indeterminate future you had good intentions.

|5.22.09 @ 10:22AM|#

• The White House prepares to steer GM toward bankruptcy, and to offer it "just short of $30 billion in additional federal loans."

Feds to Ford - Fuck you.

Xeones|5.22.09 @ 10:30AM|#

The really surprising thing about Obama is just how far he's been able to go to make Bush look competent and aboveboard.

johnl|5.22.09 @ 10:44AM|#

The bus that travels down Main in Santana runs once every 20 minutes and is packed, often standing room, at all hours of the day. That one bus probably moves more people per day than the entire Metrolink system. But the Governator wants to spend more on rail.

|5.22.09 @ 11:03AM|#

The move comes as the administration prepares to lift the nation's other faltering car company, Chrysler, from bankruptcy protection as soon as next week, industry sources said.

And who, other than the government, will ever be willing to lend money to Chrysler, after the royal fucking administered to the secured creditors?

|5.22.09 @ 11:07AM|#

Good post by Gene Healy.

Jordan|5.22.09 @ 11:14AM|#

Has Canada become a beacon of free markets?

That was an eye-opener.

The White House prepares to steer GM toward bankruptcy, and to offer it "just short of $30 billion in additional federal loans."

So we should be approaching $100 billion right about now, and still no end in sight. Fuck GM.

BakedPenguin|5.22.09 @ 11:29AM|#

And who, other than the government, will ever be willing to lend money to Chrysler, after the royal fucking administered to the secured creditors?

Since the government now pretty much controls the financial system, why would they need anyone other than the government to give lend them money?

|5.22.09 @ 12:18PM|#

Charles Mann's 1491

I second X's recommendation. 1491 is an excellent book.

shecky|5.22.09 @ 12:35PM|#

Chris Edwards' article and his accompanying Cato post are the kind of thing that should really gets the libertarian creative juices flowing. The most pernicious thing about this kind of story is that it makes liberals and conservatives fall back on their brainless default modes. Liberals (and some populist conservatives) start crying about how NAFTA is killing jobs in the neighborhood, while conservatives begin stuttering, "bu.. bu.. but... socialized medicine..." all as a cover for traditional left/right talking points.

What is it about American politics that makes it so difficult to implement pragmatic changes, or even for politicians to espouse them? The rank and file of either side are committed to "all-or-nothing" struggles, incremental improvements be damned. Does anybody really think that, say, Canada should implement more centralized control of markets simply to make ideological consistency with socialized medicine? Now apply this line of thinking to the US.

JD|5.22.09 @ 12:55PM|#

I'm not that impressed with "Sandra" from the "underground economy" article. The other people are all making money by the labor of their hands and minds (and other body parts) with stuff they at least buy legitimately. Sandra, OTOH, is ripping off the people who did the original creative work. You think she's ever even considered licensing the stuff she uses? No, she just takes it for free.

I'm not an IP absolutist: I do realize that she's not stealing anything anybody already had. But I am pretty sensitive because I recently discovered an "artist" downloading photos that I and my friends had taken, running them through Photoshop's "watercolor" filter, and selling the prints, all without asking the original photographer or the subject of the photo or even giving them credit. I don't see much difference between that and what Sandra is doing. (BTW, while the "watercolor" was supposedly an artistic effect, I couldn't help but notice that it also helped conceal watermarks and the fact that most of the originals were not of a resolution to allow printing at a reasonable size, so it seemed suspiciously convenient as an artistic technique...)

Alberta Libertarian|5.22.09 @ 1:13PM|#

The great thing about Canada is that both the Liberals and Conservatives are basically the same on the issues except when it comes to criminal justice and defence.

I live in Alberta, a province ranked as the second freest jurisdiction in North America.

http://www.freetheworld.com/efna.html

!</a|5.22.09 @ 2:52PM|#

Former Bush officials cash in.

This is meant in the positive context of people with certain skill sets offering them to the market of labor and taking the best package that the market has to offer, right?

|5.22.09 @ 5:14PM|#

In a country whose economy is experiencing the worst crisis since the Great Depression, San Antonio's got the

That is as far as I needed to go.

|5.23.09 @ 2:58PM|#

"Has Canada become a beacon of free markets?" LOL. Try not pay taxes, opening a business, and transporting some wine across provincial boundaries. Canada may be 'freer' than other jurisdictions but to call Canada anywhere close to a "beacon of free markets" is a fucking joke.

|5.23.09 @ 6:56PM|#

"Has Canada become a beacon of free markets?" There stats all end in 2008, that when we followed the Americans lock, stock and barrel into stimulus plans and bailouts. Apparently, outdoing the Americans. We're going to be in even bigger shit than you.

EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy|5.25.09 @ 8:14PM|#

::Sits lost in a daydream about a beer and a burger at Chester's on I-10::

Anyone know if the other location is still open? I would really like to go to Chester's again...