More Frost and Other Things

Last year at this time, we were in Southern California and spent a day at Joshua Tree National Park. As I saw this scene on that frosty morning this week, I could not help but see the resemblance between a frost laden tree branch and a cactus bush. These 'thorns' look deadly but they are quite harmless and fall off easily with the slightest touch. Two different exposures give two different photos.

We hear more talk each day of bailouts and government deficits. This is a result of Keynesian thinking when it comes to economic policy, the idea that if government 'tinkers' with the economy, it will run more smoothly. The idea of government spending, in Keynesian thinking, is to stimulate the economy. The logical conclusion then would be that less government spending would in fact slow the economy down. You cannot have one way working without the other working also. So..... when the economy is getting too hot, too much inflation, why do not the Keynesians slow down government spending to slow down the economy? They don't. They tinker in other ways such as raising the interest rates. The only conclusion we can draw from this is that the massive government spending in both good times and bad is strictly motivated by politics. That is what we are going to see in the new budget this week coming from our Conservative government. Lots of spending, big deficits, and all to bow to pressure from media and the opposition, and why? To save their skins. And that, my friends, is politics.