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 Thursday, October 16, 2008

New Web Site: Repeal the Bailout

By Diana Hsieh @ 1:17 PM

A most welcome message from Tony Donadio, posted to OActivists last week:
In response to last week's passage of the financial bailout legislation, I've taken the liberty of acquiring the domain name repealthebailout.net and creating a rudimentary website. It can be found here:

www.repealthebailout.net

Right now, it's more or less just a skeleton, consisting mainly of links to various articles on the subject. However, I have a strong suspicion that last week's bailout isn't the last one we're going to be facing, and that the website may continue to be relevant for some time to come. I plan to try to update it steadily as my (unfortunately limited) time allows, both with original material and with new and timely links.

I'm interested in feedback and thoughts on what I've (hastily) thrown together so far, so please feel free to respond to me (preferably directly, so as not to clutter the list) if you have any. I'm also interested in new and useful links as well as original contributions if you have any to offer or suggest.

Thanks -- Tony Donadio
Tony has done a fantastic job with Repeal the Bailout. Kudos to him! Please do point people to it in any writing you do about the financial crisis, e.g. in e-mail discussions, comments on news stories, comments on blogs, and the like.

Such small sites focused on some current issue -- like my even smaller Vote No on 59 -- are relatively easy to create, maintain, and promote. They can get a steady stream of search traffic, as shown by the stats of No on 59. (See the visits and referrals.) They're an effective and enduring form of activism for just a few hours of your time.

Notably, because of Vote No on 59, Ari Armstrong was interviewed by the local news for a segment on Amendment 59 on Tuesday. It was shown at 5:30 and again at 9:00; you can watch it here. (The reporter called me due to the web site, and I pointed her to Ari, as he's more knowledgeable than me.) That's an unusually good result, but certainly possible in a busy election season! In the meantime, over 100 interested Colorado voters each day are reading why they should vote "No" on this permanent tax hike.

You can make a difference -- if you speak out!

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 Comments

Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 12:40:53 mst
Comment ID: #1
Name: Jason Head

It is also important to point out the dangers of the MASSIVE pumping of cash the Fed is engaged it. The Fed is even more dangerous because Helicopter Ben essentially answers to no one.

Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 12:42:11 mst
Comment ID: #2
Name: Jason Head

It is also important to point out the dangers of the MASSIVE pumping of cash the Fed is engaged it. The Fed is even more dangerous because Helicopter Ben essentially answers to no one.

Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 13:17:24 mst
Comment ID: #3
Name: Burgess Laughlin
E-mail: burgesslaughlin(at)macforcego.com
URL: http://www.aristotleadventure.blogspot.com

As I understand the situation, from a layman's viewpoint, rising prices are a consequence of a rising money supply. In the 1970s, when the USA was suffering from rapidly rising prices, free market economists often spoke of "M1" or some other measure of the amount of money in the economy. I don't hear such terms used now. What is the best measure of inflation, that is, an expanding money supply?

Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 13:36:56 mst
Comment ID: #4
Name: Paul Hsieh
E-mail: paul(at)geekpress(dot)com
URL: http://www.geekpress.com

I want to thank Tony Donadio for creating this website. This could be an awesome resource.

And I also want to echo a point Diana made.

We *can* have an effect on the polity and culture at large, *if* we are willing to express our ideas. Numerous real-life examples over the past 2 years have convinced me of this fact. On the other hand, if we stay silent and let the bad guys do all the talking and they win by default, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Hence, if we value our lives, we need to speak up.

In particular, there are lots of thoughtful, articulate Objectivists who post great ideas in the comments section here. So if you've written up a good analysis of an issue (whether it be on abortion or the financial crisis, or environmentalism or foreing policy, or whatever) and you've posted it here, then you should also send it as an LTE to your local newspaper and/or post something similar to non-Objectivist blogs. You've already done the hard part, which is composing your thoughts into words. The extra marginal effort in sending that also via e-mail to the letters section of a relevant local newspaper is trivial in comparison, yet the payoff could be huge.

Posting something here will reach some minds, but many readers will already agree with you. On the other hand, getting your thoughts published as a letter in your local newspaper could let you reach 500,000 minds who might otherwise never have heard a fully principled defense of capitalism or egoism or individual rights.

And when honest readers start seeing our ideas articulated multiple times in multiple contexts, it will get them thinking. No single letter will necessarily do anything, but the cumulative effect could be significant, especially as he or she integrates those ideas with their real-life observations and experience.

So if you have something good to say (and many of you do), then don't just tell the NoodleFood crowd. Tell the world!

Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 14:15:31 mst
Comment ID: #5
Name: Rob Abiera
URL: http://moralitywar.blogspot.com

Darn! I just wrote a letter to my local paper about this, advocating the repeal of the Community Reinvestment Act, closing (NOT reforming, but closing!) Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac and firing Henry Paulson - but just plain repealing the bail-out legislation that was passed never even entered my mind! Ah well.

Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 14:25:57 mst
Comment ID: #6
Name: Michael Labeit
E-mail: logician169(at)yahoo.com
URL: http://themethodoflogic.blogspot.com

M1 refers to cash and the most liquid assets. M2 contains M1 and as well as deposits and other less liqiud assets. M3 used to be measured but the Fed stopped.

The consumer price index is the best measure of inflation I guess. The CPI is aggregate demand divided by aggregate supply. Its an arithmetical quotient. Aggregate demand is total spending and aggregate supply is the total amount of available goods. AD is the numerator and AS is the denominator. The problem with CPI is collecting the data, which, of course, is performed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an institution that central bankers and government planners use.

Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 20:26:57 mst
Comment ID: #7
Name: Cecil R. Williams
E-mail: c1992w(at)gmail.com

In an effort to concretize just how horrible the massive bailouts are, I am currently doing research on Zimbawe. There the people are eating rats to survive and the infant mortality rate is back up to the middle ages level according to one estimate. Once upon a time the commodes flushed, and the market stalls were full of fresh vegitables. Stealing and distributing stolen property was followed by bail out after bail out of the dictator's cronies until they are fast returning to the dark ages. Zimbawe is at the end of this road we are embarking on.

Cecil R. Williams

Saturday, October 18, 2008 at 6:23:09 mst
Comment ID: #8
Name: Tony Donadio
E-mail: tdonadio(at)optonline.net

Thanks to Diana for posting about the site, and for her and Paul's kind words. For anyone interested, I've given the site a bit of a facelift, and added a couple of new links and news items. I'm considering adding an actual blog to it as well, but that will have to wait at least a month or two when I'll have more time. I'll be using the News and Home pages as an informal "blog" until then.

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