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Mark Steyn returns. Need we say more? Ok, we will: we cover GZM, Bridget Bardot, Obama’s speech, expectations for this fall, The Dambusters, Michele Rhee, the Beck rally, and we try to get to the bottom of where Mark’s been the past few months. You’ll just have to listen to hear the answer.

For links mentioned in this episode, or to comment, complain, or praise, please visit us at Ricochet.com.

From CBS 2 Chicago, not The Onion:

At a news conference organized by self-identified gang members Thursday morning, several speakers complained that police and city officials do not respect them, and that the only way to curb violence is to provide jobs and improve their community.

The men who spoke out Thursday morning blamed poverty, drugs and a lack of jobs for the problems in the streets. They also said that Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis’ meeting with so-called gang leaders was a waste of time.

But when asked what could be done right now to stop the daily barrage of bullets on Chicago streets, they didn’t have an answer.

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Consider the outrage from the left at such a notion.

“That’s the thinking that got us into this mess in the first place,” the President and his lock-step liberal legions will rush to remind us.

Well, no, it isn’t.  The Bush Administration’s general lack of interest in proper regulation, the somnambulistic SEC’s furlough from responsibility during the Bush years and the federal bank examiners refusal to really examine the banks for which they were accountable while a succession of administrations, both Republican and Democrat, committed to the fantasy that credit history didn’t really matter when assessing mortgage risk are not examples of government getting out of the way of a private, market-driven, economy.  These are simply examples of a gross absence of leadership, common sense and the failure to enforce the longstanding oversight rules already in place.

Just as abandoning highway speed and safety laws would cause carnage on our highways as irresponsible and reckless risk takers took to the roads, so did government’s failure to enforce its own rules and regulations attract irresponsible and reckless risk takers into the marketplace.  Had the rules and regulations that were in place been properly enforced, and had the House and Senate financial oversight committees taken their jobs seriously, and had the business and financial press (with a few noteworthy exceptions) earned their subscribers’ fees, the mess we’ve been exposed to for the last three years would (not could…would) have been avoided.

Economists will debate ad nauseam for many years (and never reach a consensus) whether the Obama stimulus stimulated anything other than massive debt.  We have strong doubts about the efficacy of incurring a trillion dollar debt to improve the economy along with a plethora of new policies and regulations that will add tens of thousands of new bureaucrats (literally) and thousands of new regulations (and the massive taxes needed to fund this circus) on to the backs of businesses and all other taxpayers in the cause of stimulating growth.  Individuals and businesses in the marketplace are what stimulate growth, and, by any measure, the marketplace is ready to grow if government would just allow it properly to operate.

Many American businessmen are, today, at the controls of well-oiled and well-fueled industrial machines, but they don’t know whether to, metaphorically, depress the brake or the accelerator of those machines. And who can blame them. Everything the government is doing portends uncertainty and, indeed, danger ahead.  Bare teeth determination to raise taxes on capital, on dividends on high-quality corporate insurance programs on corporations deemed too successful (that would be all small businesses earning over $250,000) and on the most productive income earners in our society is the order of the day emanating from the White House.  This, while the greatest feeding frenzy of new regulatory rule making has been simultaneously unleashed in Washington. And our new ruling class cluelessly laments the hesitancy that permeates our economy.

The tragedy is that the economy is poised to accelerate.

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Today, in 1998, Google was founded. Only twelve years people…

Paris Hilton may be able to shop without looking at price tags, but the State of Illinois doesn’t have that luxury—particularly when it already has $4.7 billion in unpaid bills. Even so, state legislators receive precious little information on how much the laws they’re approving will save or cost taxpayers.

A summer 2010 survey by the Illinois Policy Institute found that out of 545 bills pending review by the governor, only 3 percent—or 16 bills—had fiscal notes attached. Fiscal notes are like “price tags” for legislation. They are intended to estimate the costs, savings, revenue gain, or revenue loss resulting from the implementation of proposed legislation.

Many of the fiscal notes found in the Institute’s survey were just a couple of sentences long. Believe it or not, we found a fiscal note that was just one word: “minimal.”

The result of this lack of information? Legislators and the public are unable to conduct a proper analysis of the budgetary effects of proposed legislation, and this has real consequences for the state budget. Indeed, the Blagojevich All Kids Expansion passed in 2005 had no fiscal note, although an Auditor General report found that the program’s net cost was $70 million in fiscal year 2009. The statewide sales tax holiday held this August was passed with no fiscal note, even though it is likely to reduce expected tax collections by tens of millions of dollars. Unfortunately, these examples are the norm, not the exceptions.

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From the LA Times:

The command center of Andrew Breitbart’s growing media empire is a suite of offices on Sawtelle Boulevard in West Los Angeles with the temporary feel of a campaign office. Only the computers seem firmly anchored.

On a recent summer day, just weeks after he posted video clips that touched off a national furor over race, Breitbart was swigging a bottled Frappuccino at his desk. In a Lacoste shirt, cargo shorts and laceless Converse All-Stars, he looked every bit the 41-year-old industry player he might have been, but for a political awakening that transformed this liberal, West Side child of privilege into a Hollywood-hating, mainstream-media-loathing conservative.

Breitbart, who has emerged as a star of the “tea party” movement, loves telling his apostate’s tale in the italicized, frequently profane manner that is his trademark. Three epiphanies stand out:

1. The Black Dorm Moment. In 1986, Breitbart was a freshman at Tulane University when his friend Larry Solov, a sophomore at Stanford, happened to mention his school’s African-American-themed residence hall.

“He just matter-of-factly said there was a black dorm and I was like, ‘What the friggin’ hell? Are you kidding me?’” said Breitbart, who is now business partners with Solov, a former corporate litigator.

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In this week’s edition of Coffee and Markets, featuring The New Ledger’s Francis Cianfrocca, we’re talking about the latest unemployment numbers, the call for a millionaire’s tax, and Christina Romer’s goodbye remarks. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment.com and Stephen Clouse and Associates.

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You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

TNL: Barack Obama is Losing Time
Romer: My Plan Failed
The Hill: White House Rules Out Stimulus Sequel
TNL: The Troubles Rich People Have
TNL: Critiquing Newt Gingrich’s Economic Policy

As a service to all Americans, allow me to remind you all of Sen. Harry Reid’s infamous pronouncement in 2007:

Now, in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sen. Reid makes an unbelievable new claim:

At the time Sen. Reid made this comment, President Bush had been pursuing a failed, stay-the-course strategy that had cost thousands of American lives and billions of taxpayer dollars. Iraq appeared to be on the verge of a sectarian civil war. He was simply pointing out what our military leaders, including Gen. Petraeus, had been saying for months: that we could not win by staying the course; the war needed to be won diplomatically, politically, and economically. Sen. Reid and his colleagues were successful in forcing President Bush to finally abandon his failed approach and refocus on political reconciliation. This is what ultimately paved the way for the Iraqi government to take greater responsibility for Iraq’s future. Sen. Reid’s comments were directed at President Bush and his following of misguided policymakers, not at the heroic troops who continue to serve our country with incredible courage.

As Sherman Frederick of the Las Vega Review-Journal puts it:

Asked about his 2007 comment in which he proclaimed “This war is lost” while our soldiers were still in Iraq getting their heads shot at and before the so-called “surge” even had begun, Reid today said that his statement was actually a “successful” ploy to force President Bush to refocus on political reconciliation.

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is the latest victim of the Tea Party insurgency that’s trying to take over the Republican Party. Tea Party favorite Joe Miller defeated Murkowski in The North Star State’s primary by hammering away at (among other things) her support for TARP and lack of zeal for overturning Obamacare.

Miller joins a new breed of anti-spending candidates such as Maine’s Paul LePage, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, Florida’s Marco Rubio, and South Carolina’s Nikki Haley, who promise to bring a new passion for shrinking government to D.C. and state capitals.

Here’s how Freedom Works’ Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe sum up what the Tea Party stands for in their new book, Give us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto: “It doesn’t take a lot of words to say that we just want to be free. Free to lead our lives as we please, so long as we don’t infringe on the same freedom of others.”

Armey and Kibbe say that the Tea Party coheres around spending and that other issues are not central to its mission. Perhaps. Joe Miller is also pro-life, pro border fence, and wants to outlaw the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research. Maine gubernatorial hopeful LePage believes the “traditional definition of marriage should be preserved.” Haley, who will probably be South Carolina’s next governor, has campaigned on tough enforcement against illegal immigrants. And the closest thing to a Tea Party spokesperson is Sarah Palin, the former “Bridge to Nowhere” supporter who oversaw a 16 percent increase in spending during her time as governor of Alaska.

Can this coalition stay together, stick to its anti-spending message, and actually change American politics? Or will it be co-opted by the very party upon which it seeks to perform a “hostile takeover?”

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Corporate profits are at all-time highs and bond rates in the Treasury market are virtually at record lows. That’s a good combination for stocks, and it helped trigger a 255 point rally in Wednesday’s trading. What’s more, a surprisingly positive read on the ISM August manufacturing report delivered a strong blow to the double-dip recession pessimism that has plagued investors for many months.

Without question, the jobs picture is going to remain cloudy. There’s just too much uncertainty over the economy and the tax-and-regulatory threats coming out of Washington. Businesses can’t be sure about the costs of hiring. Meanwhile, over in housing — our other weakest sector — an inventory glut threatens further price declines.

But make no mistake about this: Businesses, at least the publically owned ones, are in very good shape. U.S. firms scored a record $1.2 trillion in profits during the second quarter and are sitting on roughly $2 trillion in cash. Our private-sector companies are resilient, and they have recovered significantly from the economic plunge.

And while their hiring is still behind schedule, they have begun the process of investing in equipment, software, and other capital goods. Business investment in the June quarter rose 16 percent above year-ago levels. This is all to the good. Healthy businesses are crucial to the stock market as well as the overall economic outlook.

In fact, since 2001, business profits have doubled, even while the stock market dial has hardly moved. If Washington can just keep its paws off of business and let market processes work, firms will continue to prosper domestically and internationally and will eventually pick up their hiring.

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On August 24, I posted some data and analysis on yield curves for high-grade corporate bonds since the beginning of 2008, seeking to determine whether changes in these curves are consistent with the hypothesis that the current economic crisis has given rise to regime uncertainty. If it has done so, the yield curves should display increased spreads between the period immediately before the financial panic in the latter part of 2008 and the period since mid-2009, when the extraordinary volatility of the bond markets had ceased.

A reader of this post, Chris Lemens, commented: “I would imagine that, if the yield curves for both private and federal bonds moved similarly, that would mainly tell us about inflationary expectations, not regime uncertainty. (Well, inflation is a kind of regime uncertainty, but you know what I mean.)”

Here, I respond to Lemens’s comment, which raises an important issue, inasmuch as economists commonly interpret a steepening of the yield curve as indicative of increased inflationary expectations and nothing else.

First, one should appreciate, as Lemens does, that changes in expectations about future inflation may themselves reflect changes in regime uncertainty. If, for example, bond traders came to expect a transformation of government policies that would entail a substantial further attenuation of private property rights, they would also be likely to expect that in the future the rulers who preside over the new economic (dis)order will find themselves in serious economic trouble. (Economies without fairly firm private property rights do not work well.) Perhaps the most time-honored of all government actions to escape from such difficulties is the issuance of more and more new money, to be used sooner or later to pay the government’s bills; and the virtually inevitable consequence of such large-scale monetary effusion is a rising rate of general price inflation for newly produced goods and services, along with a diminished rate of real economic growth, perhaps even economic contraction.

So, increased regime uncertainty may give rise to increased inflationary expectations.

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Time Magazine discovers that it isn’t all pixie dust and unicorns in Obama-land. It is now wondering how Barack Obama became ‘Mr. Unpopular.’ Hmmm…what could it be?

Always a popular guest, Dr. Thomas Sowell returns to the show to discuss his latest book, Dismantling America.  The book’s focus is wide ranging, as is the discussion.  To take one example, Dr. Sowell questions whether most people understand what is meant by President Obama’s background as a “community organizer.”  A community organizer isn’t a friendly local expert doling out advice on better living, but is rather someone who mobilizes resentment at the behest of third party interests to put the public into battle on their behalf.

Dr. Sowell’s basic accusation of those who he believes are destroying America is that they do not–and have never–believed in the fundamental principles of the United States.  President Obama, he argues, has always sought out associates who share this skepticism.  Nevertheless, Obama is not responsible for the development of this thinking, but is rather the culmination of a long standing trend.  This trend has been happening rapidly under Democratic presidents and unfortunately persists ,albeit more slowly, under Republican presidents.

Watch the full video below:

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With their pension plans about ready to implode (no wonder they’re clamoring for a union pension bailout), a union boss who was just dumped by his top running mate, and with hundreds of members out on strike, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters can now add one more thing to their pot of bad luck:  The union just won the 2010 Most Decertified Union Award.

Every year for the past five years, Union Free America (one of a handful of websites that is committed to helping employees maintain their independence) gives out its Most Decertified Union Award and this year’s award winner (or loser, as the case may be) is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters:

Teamsters Union Wins 2010 Most Decertified Union Award

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the winner of Union Free America’s 5th Annual “Most Decertified Union Award.”  This honor is awarded to the labor union that lost the most decertification elections during the preceding 12 months.

The judging was based on an analysis of the reports of election results on the National Labor Relations Board’s web site for the period August 2009 through July 2010.  During that time the NLRB conducted 251 decertification elections.  Employees seeking to rid themselves of a union won 157 or 63 percent of them.

The Teamsters union won the “Most Decertified Union Award” by being decertified 48 times during that period.  The Teamsters were involved in a total of 64 decertification elections of which they lost 75 percent.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) came in a distant second by being decertified in 9 out of 15 elections, or 60 percent.

The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) won honorable mention by being decertified 8 times. This may seem paltry compared to the Teamsters, but IUOE deserves recognition for being decertified in 8 out of 8 elections.

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Actor Paul Hogan, star of the “Crocodile Dundee” movies, has vowed to continue fighting the Australian tax office which has barred him from leaving Australia until he pays a massive bill, saying he’s victim of a witch hunt. Hogan, 70, was served with a departure prohibition order 10 days ago while in Australia to attend his 101-year-old mother’s funeral which has prevented him from leaving to return to Los Angeles where he lives with his wife and son. The Australian Tax Office refused to comment on reports of seeking tax on A$38 million ($34 million) of allegedly undeclared income from Hogan, saying it cannot give details of individual taxpayers. But the actor went public in the Australian media this week to put forward his side in his five-year row with the tax office, saying he had done nothing wrong and the tax office was on a witch hunt for a high-profile case. …”If I was a tax evader, which I’m not, I must be the dumbest one in the world to keep coming back here instead of fleeing to a tax haven … I know they’re absolutely desperate to nail some high-profile character with money to justify the expense to the taxpayer.” Hogan, who was once a painter on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, is under investigation as part of Australia’s biggest probe into offshore tax evasion, Operation Wickenby. The operation is budgeted to cost at least $300 million. The tax office has claimed he put tens of millions of dollars in film royalties in offshore tax havens, a claim that he has denied. He has never been charged with tax evasion.

Yesterday Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski issued a statement on Network Neutrality and Internet reclassification that is difficult to interpret in any way other than “I’m not interested in walking the Media Marxist Net Neutrality plank.”

Chairman Genachowski has called for another round of public comment on the two contentious components of Net Neutrality – and how they should be applied to both wired and wireless Internet.  And did so in such a way as to make it very difficult for the pro-Net Neutrality Media Marxists like Free Press to raise any objection.  After all, who can protest more input from the American people?

He made it difficult – not impossible.  For no amount of Reality is insurmountable for the Media Marxists.  These are the folks who continuously called for us to “Listen to the People” – until it became exceedingly obvious that the people weren’t with them.

So now their rallying cry becomes “Overregulation by Any Means Necessary.”  They are demanding the FCC reclassify the Internet under ancient 1930s land line telephone rules – and that they do it immediately.

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The state that is home to Hollywood often leads the nation when it comes to creating illusion. Sometimes, the illusion becomes a law like AB32, the so-called “Global Warming Solutions Act”. Two Democratic presidents and one Republican agreed in deciding that the Kyoto Protocol was a fundamentally flawed idea and refrained from having the United States commit to it.

California, however, is governed by legislators who are clueless about the fact that the state is teetering on the edge of a cliff and are more than willing to pass laws that will help push it over. AB32 is a Kyoto-esque bill that seeks to reduce the state’s carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. It was sold to the citizens with the dubious “stimulate green jobs” sales pitch that, so far, has proven to be more of a dream than a reality.

The law purports to create an economic green tech boom in California through the research and development of solar and wind power (the latter of which is becoming increasingly problematic).

California now faces unemployment levels second only to Michigan and a perpetual budget crisis that is only made worse by laws that kill jobs and financially prop up industries that are unable to compete in the marketplace on their own merits. Prop 23 is a ballot initiative that would suspend AB32 until the unemployment level in the state hits 5.5% (or lower) for four consecutive quarters.

As this is such a hot-button issue for those on both sides, the money is flying all over the place to fight it. The largest financial contributor to the “No On 23″ effort is is hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, who heads up Farallon Capital in San Francisco. Steyer is bankrolling a counter campaign that paints Prop 23 as a public health hazard. A quick look at the companies Farallon invests in would indicate that his deep concern for the havoc being wrought on the public health by carbon fuels doesn’t extend much beyond the California border, however.

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In the wake of yesterday’s terrorism outside Washington, DC by Discovery-network hostage-taker James J. Lee, let’s consider the position articulated by, say, radio host Glenn Beck to not attribute responsibility to Al Gore’s eco-ranting. The latter is of course larded with assurances of a certain eco-catastrophe brought about by dark forces impeding salvation, and disturbing utterances like “the tide in this battle will turn only when the majority of people in the world become sufficiently aroused by a shared sense of urgent danger to join in an all-out effort.” (Earth in the Balance, p. 269)

Any sane person knows that such exhortations for an all-out effort to stop urgent danger are merely calls to get involved, say with direct mail campaigns and bake sales.

Now, both Fox News and CNN have reported that Lee attributed his radicalism to the writings of two men — Daniel Quinn and Al Gore. The Washington Post carried a fairly lengthy article exploring the former, who dismisses any connection. That piece and the main news feature are both silent on the deceased’s giving equal credit to Gore (although a pop-up ad for China’s solar industry does accompany one of them). This is true of the Wall Street Journal’s coverage, among others.

Beck’s (somewhat backhanded, I understand) rationale for exculpating Gore of partial responsibility is that the terrorist was not a sane person. Yep. But the two — culpability by Gore and other radical green imams, and acting out by mentally unstable members of their targeted demographic — aren’t mutually exclusive. We know that individuals bear responsibility for reasonably foreseeable consequences of their actions, both the instigator and the instigated.

One might not like the connection, what with environmentalism being as chic as a Che Guevara handbag, but you can’t deny it. Take the quiz, “Did Al Gore say it? Or was it the Unabomber?“. I dare you to score better than 50%. That should make you uncomfortable. Then read Lee’s manifesto, and really squirm at the similarities.

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If drinking makes us healthier and wealthier, why is America’s liquor policy so screwy?

Jimmy Carter legalized home brewing in 1978, and that newfound freedom fueled the craft beer movement that continues to lavish beer lovers with endless choices. But in many ways, laws that govern whiskey, gin, and other distilled spirits are stuck in the 1920s.

Federal agents still raid distilleries much like they did during Prohibition, and making any amount of moonshine at home is not only illegal, it’s a felony that can carry up to five years in prison. The result is a market dominated by a few big names, where would-be craftsmen are forced to hide their work.

And yet, despite the danger, America is in the midst of “moonshine renaissance,” in which a new wave of hipster hobbyists has joined with old-time ’shiners to flout the law and do what they love to do.

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