What’s up with CNN having all this straight-up libertarian commentary?

The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government.

The obvious alternative to a bailout is letting troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company.

Bankruptcy does not mean the company disappears; it is just owned by someone new (as has occurred with several airlines). Bankruptcy punishes those who took excessive risks while preserving those aspects of a businesses that remain profitable.

In contrast, a bailout transfers enormous wealth from taxpayers to those who knowingly engaged in risky subprime lending. Thus, the bailout encourages companies to take large, imprudent risks and count on getting bailed out by government. This “moral hazard” generates enormous distortions in an economy’s allocation of its financial resources.

Nice to see Ron Paul is still swinging:

I am afraid that policymakers today have not learned the lesson that prices must adjust to economic reality. The bailout of Fannie and Freddie, the purchase of AIG, and the latest multi-hundred billion dollar Treasury scheme all have one thing in common: They seek to prevent the liquidation of bad debt and worthless assets at market prices, and instead try to prop up those markets and keep those assets trading at prices far in excess of what any buyer would be willing to pay.

Additionally, the government’s actions encourage moral hazard of the worst sort. Now that the precedent has been set, the likelihood of financial institutions to engage in riskier investment schemes is increased, because they now know that an investment position so overextended as to threaten the stability of the financial system will result in a government bailout and purchase of worthless, illiquid assets.

Using trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to purchase illusory short-term security, the government is actually ensuring even greater instability in the financial system in the long term.

The solution to the problem is to end government meddling in the market. Government intervention leads to distortions in the market, and government reacts to each distortion by enacting new laws and regulations, which create their own distortions, and so on ad infinitum.

I’m seriously considering bailing on AT&T and jumping to T-Mobile for the first Android phone. I figure then I’ll jailbreak my iPhone so it works on T-Mobile’s network as well.

This article got me a little closer to being sold on the G1.

I meant to post this weeks ago. When I was at ComicCon I signed up for a special SuicideGirls membership deal. I’d previously bought a monthly membership. Once the monthly expired and I renewed with the sign-up code I’d received at the con, one of the SGs emailed me to say that for renewing, they’d like to send me a special gift. I’d all but forgotten about it when I got a package notice a couple of weeks ago. I’d expected stickers or a booklet. Maybe a t-shirt. Nothing as rad as what I received.

That’s a copy of the Italian Villa DVD, an awesome illustrated deck of cards, and their Anthology No. 2. Amazing. I was really excited for the cards. I’d actually bought the same deck at ComicCon and gotten some SGs to sign their cards. I was uneasy about actually playing with those. Now I’ve got a set for play and a set for display. I really love the art on the cards.

Fucking excellent

So rad…

Binary Beat from Niklas Roy on Vimeo.

[via grinding.be]

But they split infinitives:

In my new issue of Wired, there was a huge advertisement for some Michael Madsen movie (Michael Madsen still makes movies?) with an attached Bluray disc — so it’s virtually completely useless. This giant page ruined the magazine since I couldn’t open it without it just flopping open to the ad. Since the page wasn’t perforated when I tore it out I almost pulled out several other pages. Way to go, advertisers. Now I have negative feelings toward you.

“Okay, it’s Psych but not fun.”