Cash to Break Engines

It's like watching a window get smashed, or a house get demolished…




h/t Marcin.

Broken Window Propaganda

Every cockamamie economic plan put forward by the State is always accompanied by propaganda, tailored to the credulous masses, explaining its ostensible benefits. It is no surprise then to see the latest scheme to create "green jobs" comes with a colorful pamphlet explaining the economic virtues of the latest "5 year plan" crafted by our ever-benevolent central planners. Let's take a look:

Is it any wonder that the miraculous plan, which wants us to believe that it will lead to an environmentalist utopia, is based on the most basic economic fallacy of them all? That by taxing and destroying the wealth of one part of an economy, demand will be spurred in another part of the economy, creating jobs and benefiting us all. This propaganda flyer gets bonus points for the irony of having windows installed to illustrate the economic benefits of the green plan.

Thanks Dan for the pointer to the propaganda piece.

New Homes Demolished in Victorville, CA

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H/T CalculatedRisk.

Burning down the house

If it weren't bad enough that Bushfires are sweeping across large parts of Australia, killing scores of people, leaving many more homeless, and destroying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property, we now have to suffer from the rank asininity of Keynesian "economists" suggesting that the natural disaster will have beneficial economic consequences:

As an aside, the bushfires may help the nation fend off recession: Goldman Sachs JBWere economist Tim Toohey says rebuilding will generate an economic stimulus equal to 0.25-0.4 per cent of GDP over the next 18 months.

"As tragic as the events of the past two days have been, the rebuilding phase will provide a catalyst for economic growth in coming months, even if the personal and environmental cost takes years to recover," he says.

One wonders whether the suspected arsonists were in fact Keynesians executing another ridiculous "stimulus plan".

Police smash window repairer's business ploy

The LA Times is reporting that Police smash window repairer's business ploy:

Times were so tough for window repairman Timothy Carl Klenke, police say, that he decided to take proactive measures: He armed himself with a slingshot and began cruising around the city, shattering at least five windows and car windshields as he went.

"The statements he gave to officers led them to believe he was out to drum up business and was prepared to go out and do some more damage," Redlands police spokesman Carl Baker said Tuesday.

Witnesses reported seeing Klenke, 50, driving around in his Honda in the areas where the vandalism occurred. When police arrived at his Redlands home, they said, they found a slingshot in his car along with projectiles that matched those used to smash the windows and windshields.

Baker said Klenke, who was arrested Monday, had planned to contact the victims later and offer to repair the windows for a fee.

"I'm sure it has something to do with the economy," Baker said. "Everybody is hurting now."

Almost every economic policy proposed by Congress is some variant of the Broken Window Fallacy. But when the same policy ideas are carried out by a private citizen it's called "vandalism". If Klenke had been able to formalize his ideas into an economic theory, he probably would have been awarded a Nobel Prize; just like this guy.

Photo by Rich Anderson. Used under a Creative Commons license.