Monday Brief: Are Disasters an Economic Boon?

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Brief · March 28, 2011 The Foundation "When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground." --Thomas Jefferson For the Record Some call this economic opportunity "Economic lunacy abounds, and often the most learned, including Nobel Laureates, are its primary victims. The most recent example of economic lunacy is found in a Huffington Post article titled 'The Silver Lining of Japan's Quake' written by Nathan Gardels, editor of New Perspectives Quarterly.... Mr. Gardels says, 'No one ... would minimize the grief, suffering and disruption caused by Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami. But if one can look past the devastation, there is a silver lining. The need to rebuild a large swath of Japan will create huge opportunities for domestic economic growth, particularly in energy-efficient technologies, while also stimulating global demand and hastening the integration of East Asia. ... By taking Japan's mature economy down a notch, Mother Nature has accomplished what fiscal policy and the central bank could not.' ... It's not just disasters in Japan. After Florida's devastating 2004 hurricane, newspapers carried headlines such as 'Storms create lucrative times.' and 'Economic growth from hurricanes could outweigh costs.' ... Why might Japan's and Florida's devastation be seen as 'pluses'? French economist Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) explained it in his pamphlet 'What is Seen and What is Not Seen,' saying, 'There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.' ... Do a simple smell test on these examples of economic lunacy. Would the Japanese economy face even greater opportunities for economic growth had the earthquake and tsunami also struck Tokyo, Hiroshima, Yokohama and other major cities? Would the 9-11 terrorists have done us an even bigger economic favor had they destroyed buildings in other cities? The belief that society benefits from destruction is lunacy." --economist Walter E. Williams Government "Gas is well over $4 a gallon in most places in California -- and soaring elsewhere as well. But are such high energy prices good or bad? That should be a stupid question. Yet it is not when the Obama administration has stopped new domestic offshore oil exploration in many American waters, curbed oil leases in the West, and keeps oil-rich areas of Alaska exempt from drilling. ... Consider the logic of the president's Orwellian declaration: The United States in the last two years has restricted oil exploration of the sort Brazil is now rushing to embrace. We have run up more than $4 trillion in consecutive budget deficits during the Obama administration and are near federal insolvency. Therefore, the United States should be happy to borrow more money to purchase the sort of 'new stable sources of energy' from Brazil's offshore wells that we most certainly will not develop off our own coasts. It seems as if paying lots more for electricity and gas, in European fashion, was originally part of the president's new green agenda." --columnist Victor Davis Hanson Re: The Left "I cannot for the life of me see how an American president can launch a serious military action without a full and formal national address in which he explains to the American people why he is doing what he is doing, why it is right, and why it is very much in the national interest. He referred to his aims in parts of speeches and appearances when he was in South America, but now he's home. More is needed, more is warranted, and more is deserved. He has to sit at that big desk and explain his thinking, put forward the facts as he sees them, and try to garner public support. He has to make a case for his own actions. It's what presidents do! And this is particularly important now, because there are reasons to fear the current involvement will either escalate and produce a lengthy conflict or collapse and produce humiliation. Without a formal and extended statement, the air of weirdness, uncertainty and confusion that surrounds this endeavor will only deepen. ... America has been though a difficult 10 years, and the burden of proof on the need for U.S. action would be with those who supported intervention. Chief among them, of course, is the president, who made the decision as commander in chief. He needs to sit down and tell the American people how this thing can possibly turn out well. He needs to tell them why it isn't mad." --columnist Peggy Noonan Liberty "[P]rognostication is a skill few journalists, politicians, diplomats, and intelligence officials have demonstrated consistently over time. So while it's clear that the Muslim world is in the throes of a major transformation, let's not pretend we know how this story ends. It's possible we're seeing an Arab spring, a democratic awakening -- uprisings that will bring freedom to societies that have known only oppression. But it's equally possible that one form of oppression will simply replace another. ... It's comforting to believe there is a 'right side to history.' But if history demonstrates anything it is that history has no preferences. History includes wars and interludes of peace, dark ages and enlightenments, cities rising and cities razed. Sometimes history marches from one age to the next. More often, it stumbles. Though the future cannot be predicted, its course may be altered. ... The lessons here are not hard to grasp yet few journalists, politicians, diplomats and intelligence officials seem to have grasped them." --Cliff May, President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies The Gipper "Our party must be based on the kind of leadership that grows and takes its strength from the people. Any organization is in actuality only the lengthened shadow of its members. A political party is a mechanical structure created to further a cause. The cause, not the mechanism, brings and holds the members together. And our cause must be to rediscover, reassert and reapply America's spiritual heritage to our national affairs. Then with God's help we shall indeed be as a city upon a hill with the eyes of all people upon us." --Ronald Reagan Opinion in Brief "It's no secret how the KGB was actively involved in bankrolling and furthering the radical student and hippie movements of the 1960s in hopes that stinky, stoned hippies and violent America-hating radicals like Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and dupes in the Weathermen, Students for a Democratic Society and others would topple America or cause it great harm. Why do you think they call it dope? Just a few years after the 1960s hippies largely became extinct, a man named Ronald Reagan brought the Soviet Union to its knees, proving that communism, socialism and anti-Americans like Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn were no match for the strongest force ever developed by man: capitalism. Excellence has its rewards -- never forget that. Tragically, American colleges remain infested with leftover liberals who spout socialist and communist idiocy from their insulated, ivory towers. However, the majority of Americans find liberalism to be a bankrupt, brain-dead political ideology that destroys instead of builds and creates dependence instead of independence. Real rebellion is cool so long as the rebels replace the current system with something better, such as that which the American Revolution achieved." --columnist Ted Nugent Click Here A Time to Kill A Time to Heal We are proud to offer A Time To Kill A Time To Heal by USMC retired Vietnam veteran Roger L. Helle, a man who has rightly earned the title of hero in every sense of the word. Three tours of combat duty in Vietnam left Roger Helle a broken, wounded man. At the age of 22, he overheard the doctor in Vietnam tell his twin brother he was going to die. A fear he had not even known on the battlefield gripped his heart! He did not want to die! Read about Roger Helle's journey from the shadows of death in his book, A Time To Kill A Time To Heal. Softcover, 299 pages. Faith & Family "Last year, you'll recall that we created an iPhone app for the Manhattan Declaration. The app would allow users to read, sign, and share the Manhattan Declaration and its defense of human life, traditional marriage, and religious freedom. Apple said the app was 'free from objectionable material.' But when a group that supports so-called 'gay marriage' protested that the Declaration promoted 'hate' and 'homophobia' and was 'anti-gay,' (which it wasn't), Apple removed the app from its iPhone store. ... Now they have another: Exodus International, a Christian ministry that aims to free people from homosexuality. Apple has now removed the Exodus International app from its app store. ... Some may say that losing an iPhone app for Exodus International isn't that big a deal... But it's not just about apps. It's about freedom of speech, the ability to participate in the marketplace of ideas. The gay-rights groups have shown their fangs. Victory in the courts or in the legislatures is not enough for them. They want to silence, yes, destroy those who don't agree with their agenda. So they target Christian groups and corporate America to do just that. The writing is on the wall, folks. For the sake of religious liberty and free speech, we must not remain silent. Not on this issue, or on any issue that would threaten free speech and freedom of religion." --author Chuck Colson Culture "Newsweek magazine recently announced its disgust after it offered the government's official citizenship test (the one we require immigrants to pass before being naturalized) to 1,000 Americans. Thirty-eight percent of the sample failed. ... Sixty-five percent couldn't figure out that the Constitution was penned and adopted at the Constitutional Convention; 63 couldn't identify how many justices were on the Supreme Court (nine); and 73 percent couldn't identify that communism was what we opposed in the Cold War. Current national leaders aren't so well known: 29 percent could not identify the current vice president (Joe Biden) and twice that percentage didn't identify the Speaker of the House (John Boehner). ... Some public schools have used the citizenship test as a social-studies project in civic knowledge. A daring principal could make passage of the citizenship test a high-school graduation requirement. Promoting better civic and historical knowledge is an important cause. But this leads to a follow-up question for Newsweek and its media colleagues: Do journalists see building civic knowledge as an important part of their job?" --columnist L. Brent Bozell Reader Comments "Your analysis in Friday's Digest was exactly right about Obama and Libya. We should not be involved in this war at all. It is a civil war and it is no threat to the the United States. Besides, if Obama is such a humanitarian, where was he in Sudan? Why doesn't he intervene in Bahrain or Syria? In Obama's own words, he should be consulting congress before taking action, but since he is a dictator, he does as he pleases." --Clay "Obama marches on with his transformation of America. Obama doesn't accept any decisions except his own. Look at how ObamaCare continues to be implemented while Congress dithers. We know its too costly and will create doctor shortages. We know people will die because Obama lied. Next, look at how we guarantee the loan for Brazil to drill of their coast and we can't drill for oil of our coasts or in ANWR. Look at how he secretly blessed the release of the Lockerbie bomber. This latest fiasco in Libya amounts to his dipping our flag to a foreign power and throwing the Constitution under the bus. And still Congress dithers. Sure he's our first black president but that doesn't mean he should get a pass on anything. Wrong is wrong and Obama has been right on very little." --Talman Click Here New Products Check out our new arrivals! All sales proceeds at The Patriot Shop support our Mission of Service to America's Armed Services. The Last Word "In the homogeneous Democratic Party of today, Henry Wallace might have made it through a convention. Certainly a community leader from Chicago, Barack Obama could and he only had four years experience in national politics, two of those years spent on the campaign trail. Now he has shown the progressive's traditional impatience with our Constitutional process. He did not go to Congress to get a declaration or an authorization of war. He has no authorization from Congress to spend money on his no-fly zone. In fact he did not go to Congress at all. He went directly to the United Nations, seeking authority to act in Libya. ... He was more comfortable with 'world opinion' and 'the community of nations.' But now that community is breaking up. China and Russian are not with him. The lesser nations are in flux, and even military commanders in the coalition are uncertain. President Obama does not really know what is happening. I suggest he have another of his Beer Summits, this time with George W. Bush, though I would caution him to follow George's custom and make it a Sarsaparilla Summit." --columnist R. Emmett Tyrrell (To submit reader comments click here.) 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