On VDARE.com, I point out the name of a man who has so far escaped any blame for the mortgage meltdown, but who deserves a share. Indeed, you might almost call him "The Architect."
It's a big article, and you'll notice it tends to turn into a sort of Unified Field Theory of iSteve obsessions. I had fun pulling it all together and I hope you have fun reading it.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
You're hopping for joy, I can see.
ReplyDeleteGreat article. Just fix this sentence near the end:
ReplyDelete"But now, for similar, Latinos have turned out lack the earning power to pay off enough California-sized mortgages."
So Bush gets 9% of the black vote, and not much more of the Hispanic, because they rightly don't trust anyone stupid enough to lend to them?
ReplyDeleteThat's a twist on the old Grouch joke.
That should have read "Groucho joke".
ReplyDeleteBut "Grouch" leads me to wonder, what's the foreclosure rate on Sesame Street? Or were all those tenements rentals?
you are more than a few steps ahead of everyone else. Right or wrong, it is an intriguing model.
ReplyDeleteGreat article. I'm certainly quite happy to dump a lot of the blame on our fearless leaderer and his boy wonder, Karl. I hope that Rove's descendents end up as cabana boys for PRI bigshots - it'd serve him right.
ReplyDeleteI especially enjoyed the aside on fractional reserve banking. I noticed that the proposed bailout is almost as much as the total amount of U.S. currency now in circulation ($750 billion).
And what's up with the Fed no longer publishing M3? They still publish M2. The two indices seem to differ primarily in that M3 includes something called "repurchase agreements" which is some kind of short-term loan collateralized with securities. How common are these things? Sounds like a great way for the MOTUs to get into any amount of trouble. But, hey, they can always get more money.
Speaking of fractional reserve banking, Asia Times recently had a column ('Dust Off The Chicago Plan') about a New Deal era alternative:
ReplyDeleteThe Chicago Plan calls for a full monopoly for the government in the issuance of currency and forbids banks from creating any money or near money by establishing 100% reserves against checking deposits. Investment banks that play the role of brokers between savers and borrowers were to undertake financial intermediation. Hence, the inverted credit pyramid, the high-leverage financial schemes (such as hedge funds), and monetization of credit instruments (such as securitization) were precluded under the Chicago Plan.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JI17Dj03.html
Wow, Steve. That's a keeper.
ReplyDeleteHoo-boy, is this ever going to get emailed to, well, everybody I know...
Didn't Steve Sailer predict the George Bush would get impeached during his second term? Or did he predict that George Bush would not last two terms (and be like Nixon, forced to resign due to scandal)? Am I miss-remembering? If not, an explanation of how George Bush was able to pull it off/ why Sailer's prediction failed to come to fruit would be nice.
ReplyDeleteFantastic article, Steve. I think it is one of your most important contributions to society. You mentioned "affordable family formation". I think it would be stronger if it was made explicit the disconnect between what the elite want to craft and the reality. After the paragraphs about the Rovian master plan to take us back to the McKinley days, say something like, "The reality is that the Republican party *is* the party of Affordable Family Formation and explain what it is.
ReplyDeleteSure, we all know this stuff, but I tried reading it through the eyes of someone who has never read your stuff before; I emailed a Vdare article for the first time.
Masterpiece, Steve.
ReplyDeleteI follow the contours of your (interesting) argument, though the reference to 'tax and spend democrats' at the end seems tired and outdated.
ReplyDeleteSteve, what did Karl Rove do that earned him his reputation as a political "svengali?"
ReplyDeleteI often hear liberals remarking what a brilliant blackguard he is.
Is it just because liberals can't figure out why someone would want to vote for George W. Bush, and so elevate Karl Rove?
This is tangential to the article, but here's something I don't understand about the flight of whites into the exurbs: If it's driven mainly by the desire to send their kids to good schools, and I believe that it is, why hasn't there been a boom in private, non-sectarian schools? That's how much of the South managed - and still manages - desegregation of their public schools. Private schools opened up, and that's where most of the white, middle-class kids go.
ReplyDeleteSo why hasn't something like this happened in LA and other areas where the public schools are overwhelmed with immigrants? Sure, there is the expense of tuition (which would be harder to pay in high-cost California than in low-cost Mississippi), but compared to the cost of buying a new house and the cost of a long, long commute, it seems that it would be a worthwhile trade-off.
Mind you, this only works if enough private schools open to maintain competition and encourage reasonable fees and high quality. Perhaps enough time has not yet passed to allow the schools to be founded ...?
steve wood,
ReplyDeleteWell, many whites have simply moved out of California or Southern California altogether.
You don't create private schools in an area if you no longer live in that area.
Many of the Whites living in California may not even have children, thus obviating the need for any schools at all.
ReplyDelete