Reality and Judgement

Two things interested me today. The first is the much discussed collapse in sub-prime loans. There has been a surge of defaults in sub prime loans. This is making Wall Street traders very nervous and getting the political and media classes exercised into mass amounts of 'do something-ism'. This of course is the paranoia that gave us an early daylight savings time which of course wasted any energy savings(if there were any which I doubt) in IT spending because it caused a mini-Y2K initiative.

The main street media will use the G word at length (GREED!!!!). Some politicians will call for additional regulation of these loans. I have heard some of my friends saying they should be illegal. I say not so fast. People have made lots of money using sub prime loans. This is very similar to the eighty's increase in junk bonds, and general stock market bubble in the last decade. Many people saw the amount of money being made in the housing market. Every Tom Dick and Harry thought he/she could get rich. Another word for that is CAPITALISM!!!!!!!! Money follows profits. Many of these people found they could not in fact make a fortune flipping houses. Many times I have remarked that I wish I had the talent to do this. Me being of sound judgement, I know my limitations. Banks, and lending institutions learned they jumped too far into a risky segment. Once again markets correct themselves. Life will go on. We live in reality, just because a market goes down, does not mean the market must be eliminated.

The other thing that struck me today was the Ohio State of the State speech by Ted Strickland.
There were no surprises to me. Governor Strickland is a liberal and sold a bill of goods to the public that he is a moderate. The state citizens were so busy being Sheep-le that they bought it. Gov. Strickland decided we can do without competition in education. He is cancelling voucher programs and putting a hold on charter schools. He of course needs to do this. As a Democrat he is owned by the Education Unions. He does the normal plan of increasing job training programs, blah blah blah. I wish once they would surprise me. When talking about education just once I would like to hear a politician of any party talk about parental responsibility, about personal responsibility, and excellence. They all live under the common illusion that more money equals better education. So now he has removed competition from the education establishment, promises more money and will wonder why no innovative solutions will appear out of nowhere. Give incentives for school districts to find solutions! Give dis-incentives to districts that refuse to find solutions! Stop doing what we have always done!! It isn't working!!!

Gov. Strickland will make available money for health insurance to poorer children. Nice thought, good intentions. That money comes from somewhere. He does not raise taxes this year, but somewhere along the line they will raise taxes to pay for all the goodies he has promised. Ohio became an economic toilet because the State believes it can fix everything. Here is an idea: Cut regulation, cut taxes, and entice private industry to re-enter Ohio. That way they can provide health insurance. The overwhelming amount of promises is for handouts and goodies. Not one word that I can find about changes that will make our State more attractive for businesses. Now that would be innovative.