Loosely Goosey

My wife just read me a story about how many of our callowed youth are borrowing against their student loans to buy Bitcoins. Now, it alarms me that the administration of this program is so loosey goosey that such irresponsible behavior can occur. (Loans under this program now total $1.3 trillion and growing rapidly.)

This student loan program, unless it is quickly reined in, is an ideal candidate to cause our next financial crisis ... and our Federal Reserve System will not have the same latitude to deal with it now as it had in 2008.

["Captain of the Titanic, there is a very big iceberg ahead ..."]

Ship-of-State Disasters

The Titanic

My previous speculation about Hillary Clinton running as a VP candidate along with Obama against the Romney/Ryan ticket might have led some to believe that I was a fan of Hillary’s. I am not … and never have been.  As I had previously indicated, I believe that she is nothing more than a political poseur … lacking in any real foreign policy vision or implementation skills.  Let me count the ways that I think that she has set this country back years, perhaps decades since she took her Foggy Bottom office:

- Her “reset” with Russia has seen Putin re-emerge as the belligerent bully he really is.  (George W. Bush had this one wrong too.)  Russia has opposed almost every one of America’s foreign policy initiatives regarding Iran, Syria and North Korea.  It (and he) is clearly not our friend but, increasingly our adversary.  Her silly attempt at cozying up with the Russian Bear has been met with repeated rebuffs.

- Her unthinking support of the Arab Spring has seen the Muslim Brotherhood take over Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and now probably Syria.  Let’s not forget that her State Department re-established diplomatic relations with Syria only a few months before what is effectively a civil war broke out there.  Whether her misreading of what has been going on there is a result of her aide, Huma Abedin (Anthony Weiner’s wife), whispering in her ear is debatable … or her long-standing tilt toward the Palestinians.  But she really has botched things up there but good.

- The policy she has pursued toward Iran has been a demonstrable utter failure.  We have diddled and dawdled with supposed “sanctions” to the point where an atomic weapon capability in Iran appears only months away.  Iran’s Ahmadinejad is now hooking up with Egypt, his considerable friends in Iraq, and even elements in Saudi Arabia to present Israel the gravest of threats.  Yes, Syria seems to be escaping his grasp but, seeing how we bungled these other Middle East uprisings, I’m fairly confident we will screw up Syria too.

- Hillary’s and Barack Obama’s treatment of Israel has been nothing short of shameful.  We have been disdainful, untrustworthy, and naively dismissive toward it, our only true friend in the Middle East.  If and when this tinder box ignites, I (and many others) place it fully on Hillary’s shoulders.

- In South and Central America, Hillary’s and Obama’s deference toward Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the Castro’s of Cuba has emboldened other nations there to drift even further left … Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia … all are sounding more and more despotic and socialistic.  I can not think of a single diplomatic success story emanating out of this area of the world during Hillary’s tenure.

- Despite Hillary’s recent swing through Africa, very little progress there has resulted from our State-Department’s policies … which appear vague and wavering.  Africa, in general, is in such a state of disrepair that small initiatives and innovative diplomacy should have yielded great rewards. Where have we been?

- Hillary’s singular visible diplomatic success seems to have been in the Far East – Myanmar (Burma).  Supposedly through her efforts, this country is slowly emerging into the 21st century.  It has freed opposition leader, Suu Kyi, after 21 years of isolation and house arrest to take her seat in Parliament … and begun to introduce gradually democratic freedoms.  However, elsewhere, in this area of the world (China, Indonesia, Japan, Viet Nam, etc.) we seem to exhibit no clear diplomatic weltanschauung.

So, although I understand the tendency of many Americans to moon over our former first lady, I believe that a careful viewing of her tenure as Secretary of State will show her to be a titanic failure.

Afterthought:  Let us not forget that Hillary's State Department recommended against the building of the Keystone Excel pipeline from Canada.

Think Big

In the late 1960's, Norman Cousins, then Editor of The Saturday Review and later the World magazine, was on the Board of Directors of a company I had started, Meta-Language Products, Inc.  He was, needless to say an uber-Liberal, but held a view that was strangely orthogonal to this orthodoxy ... he was for the private ownership of space exploration.  I then thought that this idea was a little loony, given the enormous expense that was associated with such a venture -- launch pads, communications networks, recovery armadas, control rooms, R and D expenses, hoards of technicians, etc.  But, nevertheless, he raised a significant amount of money to push forward this chimera ... all to no avail.

Now, over forty years later, this same dream is being resurrected.  James Cameron, director of Avatar and the Titanic films, and two Google poobahs are launching a company to explore and exploit opportunities in space ... see Wall Street Journal Article.  This company, Planetary Resources, Inc. is not lacking in big thinking.  It wants to send missions to asteroids and mine their resources ... with the intent to "overlay two critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources — to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP [and] help ensure humanity's prosperity."  I have written in the past about the private sector's ambitions in space .  see: Beam Me Up Scotty.  Although I admire visionaries who dream and think big (perhaps because I have been accused of being one), I do believe that realism must prevail ... particularly when there are monetary amounts of these magnitudes involved.

I will make a tongue-in-cheek prediction ... Secretary of Energy Chu, before he leaves office (hopefully next January) will write a very large check to these Planetary Resources brainaics.