Utopia, you are standing in it!

On Friday, the credit rating agency Fitch downgraded the UK’s sovereign credit rating one notch, citing worries about the economy and a jump in government debt. Bond investors at least are shrugging this off. But the announcement has revived long-standing concerns about the role of rating agencies during crises, and whether they actually make things worse. Here’s my take.

It is important to understand first that, despite some hyperbolic headlines, Fitch’s announcement is unlikely to have any significant impact on the UK’s cost of borrowing. There is nothing surprising in the agency’s statement that might tell investors anything new about the prospects for the UK economy or public finances. What’s more, the UK’s revised rating is still comfortably within the most valued category of ‘investment grade’.

Nor is the UK being singled out. It is highly likely that other countries will be downgraded further too, continuing a trend in…

As we have noted on several occasions of late, BBC audiences have not seen any reporting on the topic of the cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in combating the outbreak of Coronavirus in the region. The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process recently commented on that topic:

Coronavirus testing kits being delivered to the Gaza Strip. Photo credit: COGAT

“In a statement released on Friday, the coordination and cooperation established between Israel and Palestine, with regard to tackling COVID-19, was described as “excellent”. 

The Israeli and Palestinian authorities are continuing to coordinate their responses closely and constructively, the statement said, which is a major factor in the level of disease containment achieved so far. […]

Since the beginning of the crisis, Israel has allowed the entry of critical supplies and equipment into Gaza: examples of critical supplies include swabs for collection of samples and other…

Australia’s suicidal energy policies of the product of a squad of rent-seekers masquerading as energy ‘experts’. These sanctimonious windbags all carry PhD’s in spending other people’s money, and all graduated from the University of Endless Subsidies.

The Federal Government has to share its responsibility for the debacle; it started it, after all.

But, every time the Liberal/National Coalition attempts to bring energy policy back from the brink, in chime the ‘experts’ with their brand of self-serving wisdom. Hammering the government whenever it exhibits the temerity to support meaningful electricity generation. And filling the void with endless waffle and propaganda about how Australia is a heartbeat away from an all wind and sun powered future.

Alan Moran picks up the thread below.

Revealed: the Deep Green State
Spectator Australia
Alan Moran
24 March 2020

A story in the Guardian has demonstrated the impotence of government against the Deep State — Deep…

Lately, Trump’s behavior relative to the pandemic has not only not been Presidential, but positively puerile. He’s trying to deny New York the ventilators it needs, he’s dissing CEOs, and—what really irks me—he’s threatening to punish states whose governors don’t toady to him. What kind of leadership is that? And yet we know that his approval rating has risen to about 50%—the highest since he’s been elected.

That “bump” depressed me, making me worry that he’ll be reelected—and shame on our country if, after four years of his insanity, they allow it to continue—but Jon Chait at New York Magazine feels otherwise. The title of his piece says it all, but click the screenshot to read.

Chait thinks the bump is temporary because all leaders get a bounce when there’s a national crisis. Further, Trump’s Bump is much smaller than those enjoyed by other leaders, including Boorish Johnson, Emmanuel Macron…

Supermarkets and some publishers are favoured by the government’s imposition of severe restrictions on what we can do and from whom we can buy during the Covid-19 lock-down.

But one consumer watchdog is challenging the legality of an edict by Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi which favours supermarkets while Act leader David Seymour is questioning the pricing consequences of the business ban that has closed bakeries, butcheries and green grocers.

The Freedom of Speech Coalition meanwhile is threatening to launch an urgent judicial review of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage decision to deem non-daily newspapers and publications an unessential service for the purposes of the Covid-19 Level-4 nationwide shutdown.

Even while the government is hearing of price gouging by supermarkets, however, it is considering allowing those businesses to open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Whether the Easter Trading Laws are amended to allow this will depend on whether they…

The Economist is the latest British media outlet to mislead on the coronavirus-relate healthcare crisis in Gaza.  Their March 26th article (“Gaza, already under siege, imposes lockdown”), published in their print edition, included the following:

An outbreak would be catastrophic. Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated places. The health-care system, shattered by the long blockade, would be unable to cope. Even in normal times, basic items like antibiotics are often in short supply.

However, the medicine shortage in Gaza has nothing whatsoever to do with the the Israeli blockade – a fact we proved in a previous post which included a definitive statement from COGAT that there are NO restrictions on medicine and medical equipment.

In fact, even the NY Times has acknowledged – after communication with CAMERA – that “the import of medicine [to Gaza] is not restricted.” 

The shortage has more to do with…

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been refusing plenty of applications for marks containing curse words on the dubious ground that they are too commonplace to serve as trademarks. Ever. As I explained in my last post, these applications include SHUT THE FUCK UP legal services, KEEP FUCKING GOING jewelry, and YOU’RE AWESOME KEEP THAT SHIT UP dinnerware and oven mitts.

After that shocking exposé, we’ve earned a sweary tour through those scandalous marks that have made it onto the federal register. Applying to register these before the Supreme Court eliminated the ban in 2019 would have been a complete waste of time and money. But they have now officially penetrated the federal database. I’m not including the multiple asterisked-for-your-protection marks now on the register, though those too wouldn’t have made it through during the heyday of the scandalousness ban.

Let’s start with the shitstorm.

One for the ‘planet on fire’ crowd to ponder, as the long solar minimum continues.
– – –
Cold temperatures and a strong polar vortex allowed chemicals to gnaw away at the protective ozone layer in the north, says The GWPF.

A vast ozone hole — likely the biggest on record in the north — has opened in the skies above the Arctic. It rivals the better-known Antarctic ozone hole that forms in the southern hemisphere each year.

Record-low ozone levels currently stretch across much of the central Arctic, covering an area about three times the size of Greenland (see ‘Arctic opening’).

Nice piece on Federal Reserve history by Jeff Lacker, former President of Richmond Fed.

It is a great honor to be a part of this lecture series commemorating H. Parker Willis, who, in addition to helping create the Federal Reserve System, also served as the first secretary to the Federal Reserve Board and later as the first research director. As most of you probably know, early in his career, Dr. Willis was a professor of economics here at Washington & Lee. What you might not know is that, according to some accounts, the president of the university at the
time thought Dr. Willis spent too much time in Washington, D.C., consulting with Congress and forced his resignation. The students
protested—evidence of the abiding wisdom of your student body.

Tonight, I would like to discuss Dr. Willis’s wisdom and his original vision for the Federal Reserve. I will also talk about…

• “Bestselling Movies Are Not the Most Pirated Ones”

I’ve written about the fiscal implosion in Europe and warned that America faces the same fate if we don’t reform poorly designed entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

But this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, narrated by an Italian student and former Cato Institute intern, may be the best explanation of what went wrong in Europe and what should happen in the United States to avoid a similar meltdown.

I particularly like the five lessons she identifies.

1. Higher taxes lead to higher spending, not lower deficits. Miss Morandotti looks at the evidence from Europe and shows that politicians almost always claim that higher taxes will be used to reduce red ink, but the inevitable result is bigger government. This is a lesson that gullible Republicans need to learn – especially since some of them want to acquiesce to a tax hike as…

Given how trendy it is to blame ‘capitalism’ for all the world’s other ills, from wars to climate change, it’s no surprise that some have been quick to pin the current crisis on the failures of free markets too. Many have also used the need for unprecedented government intervention as evidence that the state should play a much bigger role in normal times as well. This is, to put it as politely as I can, rather disingenuous.

Let’s start by slaying a couple of strawmen. First, even the fiercest critics of the ‘nanny state’ would agree that public health cannot be left entirely to the markets. As Chris Snowdon has explained, the risk of a great many deaths from coronavirus is a textbook example of serious negative externalities that can only be dealt with by collective action. This is uncontroversial.

Second, most economists, whatever their leanings, would agree that…

Another skirmish ends in activist defeat, as reported in Pension and Investments Exxon, Chevron given OK to dismiss shareholder climate proposal. Excerpts in italics with my bolds.

The Securities and Exchange Commission granted requests by Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. to again reject a shareholder proposal calling for reports on how the companies are addressing climate change goals. Similar proposals filed last year were also allowed to be excluded for Exxon after its challenge.

A document on the agency website noted briefly that SEC staff agreed March 20 with requests by company officials to exclude proposals from a group of shareholders, including the Church of England and As You Sow, asking if the companies will join other oil and gas companies in taking steps to align with the Paris Agreement goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, and calling for reduction targets, long-term business plans and other details.

“That…