It’s Friday, August 26th, 2011….and here’s The Gouge!

Leading off the last Gouge of the week, Nick Schulz pays homage to Steve Jobs in National Review Online, courtesy of AEI:

Steve Jobs: America’s Greatest Failure

Steve Jobs’s announcement that he is stepping down as CEO of Apple is not surprising. He’s a very sick man; and running the world’s largest market-cap technology firm can’t be easy for someone with pancreatic cancer and who-knows-what other ailments.

Lots of digital ink will be spilled about Jobs in the coming days, most of it focusing on his truly marvelous successes. There’s a moral here for a Washington culture that fears failure too much. It’s better to focus on his failures.  

Jobs failed better than anyone else in Silicon Valley, maybe better than anyone in corporate America. By that I mean Jobs did what only the greatest entrepreneurs can do: learn from their failures. I don’t mean learn from their mistakes. I mean learn from their abject, humiliating, bonehead, epic fails.

Everyone today thinks of Jobs as the genius who gave us the iPod, MacBooks, the iTunes store, the iPhone, the iPad, and so on. Yes, he transformed personal computing and multimedia. But let’s not forget what else Jobs did.  

Jobs (along with Steve Wozniak) brought us the Apple I and Apple II computers, early iterations of which sold in the mere hundreds and were complete failures. Not until the floppy disk was introduced and sufficient RAM added did the Apple II take off as a successful product.

Jobs was the architect of Lisa, introduced in the early 1980s. You remember Lisa, don’t you? Of course you don’t. But this computer — which cost tens of millions of dollars to develop — was another epic fail. Shortly after Lisa, Apple had a success with its Macintosh computer. But Jobs was out of a job by then, having been tossed aside thanks to the Lisa fiasco.

Jobs went on to found NeXT Computer, which was a big nothing-burger of a company. Its greatest success was that it was purchased by Apple — paving the way for the serial failure Jobs to return to his natural home. Jobs’s greatest successes were to come later — iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, and more.

Jobs is a great entrepreneur for another reason. Lots of ninnies can give customers products they want. Jobs gave people products they didn’t know they wanted, and then made those products indispensable to their lives.

I didn’t know I needed the ability to read the Wall Street Journal and The Corner on a handsome handheld device at my breakfast table, on the Metro, on the Acela, or in any Starbucks I entered. But Steve Jobs did. I didn’t know I wanted to mix and match my music collection on a computer and take it with me wherever I went, but Steve Jobs did. I didn’t know I wanted a portable multimedia platform that would permit me and my kids to hurl angry birds out of a slingshot at thieving pigs. But Steve Jobs did.

All those successes were made possible by failure after failure after failure and the lessons learned from those failures.  

There’s a moral here for a Washington culture that fears failure too much. In today’s Washington, large banks aren’t permitted to fail; nor are large auto firms. Next up will be too-big-to-fail hospital systems. Steve Jobs is a reminder that failure is a good and necessary thing. And that sometimes the greatest glories are born of catastrophe.

Schulz makes some great points, but Washington’s problem isn’t a fear of failure; it’s a refusal to LEARN…. ANYTHING….from innumerable mistakes.  From the New Deal to the Great Society, Cash for Clunkers to Project Porkulus, Washington’s policies have met nothing BUT failure.  Yet in conformance with Einstein’s definition of insanity, they employ the same plans and policies time after time after time….then lying to cover up the inevitably identical results.

In a related item, the WSJ‘s Stephen Moore makes a factual, i.e., by-the-numbers comparison of a cheap imitation to the real thing:

Obamanonics vs. Reaganomics

One program for recovery worked, and the other hasn’t.

If you really want to light the fuse of a liberal Democrat, compare Barack Obama’s economic performance after 30 months in office with that of Ronald Reagan. It’s not at all flattering for Mr. Obama.

The two presidents have a lot in common. Both inherited an American economy in collapse. And both applied daring, expensive remedies. Mr. Reagan passed the biggest tax cut ever, combined with an agenda of deregulation, monetary restraint and spending controls. Mr. Obama, of course, has given us a $1 trillion spending stimulus.

By the end of the summer of Reagan’s third year in office, the economy was soaring. The GDP growth rate was 5% and racing toward 7%, even 8% growth. In 1983 and ’84 output was growing so fast the biggest worry was that the economy would “overheat.” In the summer of 2011 we have an economy limping along at barely 1% growth and by some indications headed toward a “double-dip” recession. By the end of Reagan’s first term, it was Morning in America. Today there is gloomy talk of America in its twilight.

My purpose here is not more Reagan idolatry, but to point out an incontrovertible truth: One program for recovery worked, and the other hasn’t.

The Reagan philosophy was to incentivize production—i.e., the “supply side” of the economy—by lowering restraints on business expansion and investment. This was done by slashing marginal income tax rates, eliminating regulatory high hurdles, and reining in inflation with a tighter monetary policy.

The Keynesians in the early 1980s assured us that the Reagan expansion would not and could not happen. Rapid growth with new jobs and falling rates of inflation (to 4% in 1983 from 13% in 1980) is an impossibility in Keynesian textbooks. If you increase demand, prices go up. If you increase supply—as Reagan did—prices go down.

The Godfather of the neo-Keynesians, Paul Samuelson, was the lead critic of the supposed follies of Reaganomics. He wrote in a 1980 Newsweek column that to slay the inflation monster would take “five to ten years of austerity,” with unemployment of 8% or 9% and real output of “barely 1 or 2 percent.” Reaganomics was routinely ridiculed in the media, especially in the 1982 recession. That was the year MIT economist Lester Thurow famously said, “The engines of economic growth have shut down here and across the globe, and they are likely to stay that way for years to come.”

The economy would soon take flight for more than 80 consecutive months. Then the Reagan critics declared what they once thought couldn’t work was actually a textbook Keynesian expansion fueled by budget deficits of $200 billion a year, or about 4%-5% of GDP. (You know….sorta like natural global cooling is evidence of anthropogenic global warming!)

Robert Reich, now at the University of California, Berkeley, explained that “The recession of 1981-82 was so severe that the bounce back has been vigorous.” Paul Krugman wrote in 2004 that the Reagan boom was really nothing special because: “You see, rapid growth is normal when an economy is bouncing back from a deep slump.”

Mr. Krugman was, for once, at least partly right. How could Reagan not look good after four years of Jimmy Carter’s economic malpractice?

Fast-forward to today. Mr. Obama is running deficits of $1.3 trillion, or 8%-9% of GDP. If the Reagan deficits powered the ’80s expansion, the Obama deficits—twice as large—should have the U.S. sprinting at Olympic speed.

The left has now embraced a new theory to explain why the Obama spending hasn’t worked. The answer is contained in the book “This Time Is Different,” by economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. Published in 2009, the book examines centuries of recessions and depressions world-wide. The authors conclude that it takes nations much longer—six years or more—to recover from financial crises and the popping of asset bubbles than from typical recessions.

In any case, what Reagan inherited was arguably a more severe financial crisis than what was dropped in Mr. Obama’s lap. You don’t believe it? From 1967 to 1982 stocks lost two-thirds of their value relative to inflation, according to a new report from Laffer Associates. That mass liquidation of wealth was a first-rate financial calamity. And tell me that 20% mortgage interest rates, as we saw in the 1970s, aren’t indicative of a monetary-policy meltdown.

There is something that is genuinely different this time. It isn’t the nature of the crisis Mr. Obama inherited, but the nature of his policy prescriptions. Reagan applied tax cuts and other policies that, yes, took the deficit to unchartered peacetime highs.

But that borrowing financed a remarkable and prolonged economic expansion and a victory against the Evil Empire in the Cold War. What exactly have Mr. Obama’s deficits gotten us?

Nothing whatsoever….other than deeper in debt in 2-1/2 years than the spending binge of George W. Bush did in 8.  Then again, were we Jimmy Carter, we’d likely view The Obamao’s performance with greater degree of appreciation!

And while Dimocrats from Dumbo on down continue to claim they’ve cut spending to the bone, The New Media Journal informs us:

Gov’t Providing $112M to Protect Bird Too Numerous to be Threatened

The US Department of Agriculture is paying $112 million in tax money to farmers and ranchers in 11 Western states to restore the habitat of the Sage Grouse, a bird that has not been listed as either threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species law because the government says there are too many of them.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced last week that the USDA would dedicate $21.8 million to pay eligible ranchers and farmers in the state of Wyoming to encourage conservation practices that preserve the numbers of Sage Grouse. That will bring to $112 million the total amount that the USDA has distributed over the last two years to eligible farmers and ranchers in 11 states as part of its Sage Grouse Initiative…

The money is being paid to landowners through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program and the Grassland Reserve Program….. The government is providing subsidies to farmers in these states to cover a portion–up to 75 percent, in some cases–of the cost of implementing certain conservation practices, technologies and techniques….

Environmental groups have been petitioning the Interior Department’s US Fish and Wildlife Service over the past decade to list the Sage Grouse as a threatened or endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act. However, despite these attempts, the federal government has continued to deny the Sage Grouse classification as a threatened or endangered species because there are too many of them.

Next up, more fall-out from the non-event that had Liberals up and down the East Coast soiling the leather of their limos:

Quake Exposes Post-9/11 Cracks in Cellphone Coverage,

Emergency Response

As dazed workers streamed out of evacuated office buildings Tuesday following an earthquake along the East Coast, many resorted to Tweet, email and text to communicate with the rest of the world. In the immediate aftermath of the 5.9 magnitude quake, cellphone service was a traffic jam.

The constipated wireless networks in the D.C. region and beyond were a glaring example of how the country has failed to correct the shortcomings in emergency communication 10 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

First responders were able to get by using radio on Tuesday. But spotty cellphone coverage would have prevented them from sharing vital photo and video in a more serious situation. And the service disruption was a reminder to everyday users that, in an emergency, loved ones could very well be in the dark about their well-being. 

Oh, the huMANity!!!  Seriously….just so we understand the facts: first-responders could communicate, civilians could communicate….but just not fast enough!

Wireless providers downplayed the severity of the disruption, which Washingtonians repeatedly described as eerily similar to that terrifying day 10 years ago. (“Eerily similar”?!?  Yeah….except for the fact the Great Virginia Earthquake injured nobody, killed no one and damaged nothing!)

Verizon described it as short-lived. But the Federal Communications Commission called the problem “significant,” particularly when it came to people trying to dial 9-1-1. “We are very concerned by incidents where emergency wireless calls to 9-1-1 after yesterday’s earthquake were hampered by network congestion. Thankfully, there have been no reports thus far about serious injuries or lives lost.

Which, given the total lack of injury, damage or death, begs begs the question why people were jamming 911 lines in the first place?  At the risk of sounding hard-hearted and mean-spirited, we’ll postulate any “problem” lies not with any inadequacy in the nation’s cellular phone system, but rather the ever-increasing helplessness of a society incapable of fending for itself in the face of even the most minor disruption.

By the way, Bill Magruder informs us the USGS has identified the epicenter of Tuesday’s tremor as a cemetery just outside Washington; evidently the earthquake was caused by Washington, Jefferson, Madison and a number of the other Founding Fathers spinning in their graves!

Turning from cracks to crackpots, G. Trevor, Lord High King of All Vietors, gives us the details on the latest penumbras emanating from The Land of Fruits & Nuts:

LAPD makes it easier for illegal immigrant drivers

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck announced Monday that his officers will no longer automatically tow the cars of illegal immigrant drivers stopped at sobriety checkpoints. The policy comes in response to the concerns of Latino civil rights activists, who say impound fees are unfairly costing otherwise hardworking illegal immigrant drivers hundreds of dollars.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said his department impounds about 1,000 cars a year from illegal immigrants at sobriety checkpoints – not because they’re drunk but because they don’t have driver’s licenses. “As we reviewed our impound policies it became obvious to me that they had disparate impact on individuals based on something that was entirely out of their control,” Beck said. (You know….cuz the only reason they’re both illegally here AND driving is because someone put a gun to their head all the way from Ensenada!) California doesn’t issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

Under the new policy, officers will give unlicensed illegal immigrants “reasonable time” to find someone else to drive their cars home. “No longer will these checkpoints have an adverse impact on somebody merely because of their (immigration) status,” Beck said. “The sad truth is that the people who were most impacted by this law were the people that could afford it the least.”

….Critics of Beck’s policy have said undocumented immigrants are not supposed to be in the United States in the first place, and should not be driving.

Will the last sane person leaving California please turn out the lights and lock the door….from the outside?!?

And in the Education Section, Professors Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus comment on what may soon constitute America’s next credit crisis:

As this semester begins, college loans are nearing the $1 trillion mark, more than what all households owe on their credit cards. Fully two-thirds of our undergraduates have gone into debt, many from middle class families, who in the past paid for much of college from savings….

If you want to get a name as an economic seer, try this one. The next subprime crisis will come from defaults on student debts, starting with for-profit colleges and rising to the Ivy League….

Still, there’s a difference. With mortgage defaults, banks seize and resell the home. But if a degree can’t be sold, that doesn’t deter the banks. They essentially wrote the student loan law, in which the fine-print says they aren’t “dischargable.” So even if you file for bankruptcy, the payments continue due.

Hence these stern words from Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. “You will be hounded for life,” he warns. “They will garnish your wages. They will intercept your tax refunds. You become ineligible for federal employment.” He adds that any professional license can be revoked and Social Security checks docked when you retire.

Unless of course “Oh-ba-ma! Oh-ba-ma!” decides to intervene ala Government Motors, circumventing established law to buy the youth vote with another tranche of private capital.

On the Lighter Side….

Turning to the Crime Blotter, we learn….

No Charge for Wisconsin Justice Accused in Choking

A prosecutor says she won’t file any criminal charges against Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser over allegations he choked a liberal colleague. Justice Ann Walsh Bradley accused Prosser of choking her in June as the justices deliberated on a legal challenge to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s contentious collective bargaining law, which strips most public workers of nearly all their union rights.

Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett is acting as a special prosecutor in the case. She says she has reviewed investigators’ reports and decided there’s no basis to file charges against either Walsh Bradley or Prosser. She told The Associated Press in an interview that accounts from other justices who witnessed the apparent altercation varied, but she declined to elaborate.

First, for this story to make any sense at all, one of four things must be true: either….

(a).  Prosser choked Bradley, in which case Prosser should be removed from the state bench.

(b).  Bradley lied about Prosser choking her, in which case Bradley should be removed from the state bench.

(c).  Bradley is crazy, in which case, see option (b) above.

(d).  DA Bennett can’t handle the truth and is covering it up, in which case she needs to be transferred from Gitmo and disbarred.

Any way you slice it, Cheeseheads should be concerned with the mental stability of at least one member of their state’s highest court, and the integrity of their entire legal system.

Second, as that portion of the highlighted in blue is neither germane to the subject nor factually accurate, reasonable people might reasonably conclude the Associated Press isn’t reporting, but propagandizing by offering false or misleading statements with an intent to deceive, i.e., lying!

Imagine that: a MSM outlet pushing a political agenda at the expense of the truth!

Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with the “Good News/Bad News” segment; first the bad news:

Surgeon Takes Out Wrong Part of Man’s Brain

Have a great weekend!

Magoo