Time To Shrug

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CRONIES MARRY THE FED!

We went on a bond-buying spree that was supposed to help Main Street. Instead, it was a feast for Wall Street.

I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed's first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time.

Five years ago this month, on Black Friday, the Fed launched an unprecedented shopping spree. By that point in the financial crisis, Congress had already passed legislation, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to halt the U.S. banking system's free fall. Beyond Wall Street, though, the economic pain was still soaring. In the last three months of 2008 alone, almost two million Americans would lose their jobs.

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Crony business people are the most evil impediment to free market capitalism in existence. See the Clinton Show Returns at www.timetoshrug.org

The majority of the voters and citizens of the United States believe they are entitled to free lunch.

It is time for the rest of us to quit picking up the tab.

Let them know that their cafeteria is closed.

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Ayn Rand on TV

This is one of the most pathetic cases of crony business practices I’ve read this year. If you invest in or purchase from Tesla Motors, General Motors or Chrysler, shame on you.

But here is the real deal – if you make your living honestly you may have less money than the cronies, but you sleep at night and wake up proud and happy.

If you make your money as a crony you may have lots of money, but the stench of that unearned cash never goes away. You don’t sleep well at night because you know you are a fraud and you wake up with shame and unhappiness.

The Other Government Motors...

The list of the Obama Administration's industrial policy failures is long, from Solyndra to Fisker Automotive. But now we are hearing that one success redeems them all: Tesla Motors. Tesla's share price has soared this year on rave reviews for its electric car, growing sales and its first quarterly profit.

Rarely noted is how much this profit is a function of government subsidy and coercion. So let's take apart Tesla by the numbers, if only to give our reader-taxpayers a better sense of what they've paid to make Tesla's owners rich.

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