Working on a Caricature

This past Tuesday, Bruce Springsteen released Working on a Dream, his 16th studio album, amidst an extensive promotional push that includes a performance at the half-time show of Super Bowl XLIII, a Wal-Mart exclusive greatest-hits compilation (does anyone else see the hypocrisy/irony in this one?), an appearance at a pre-inauguration concert, and the announcement of yet another juggernaut world tour. The album, much like Springsteen’s persona as of late, comes off as unintentionally self-parodic, and confirms my belief that the Boss is unfortunately nothing but a caricature of himself these days – albeit one who can still put on a ridiculously good performance and whose first eight or so albums are undeniable modern classics.

On the heels of 2007's Magic, a collection of some of the most mediocre Bruce material in over a decade, Bruce and his E-Street Band hurriedly recorded Working, and it shows in how thoughtless and oftentimes silly this record is. On first listen, the opener “Outlaw Pete” should raise eyebrows because it might very well be Bruce’s attempt to take his operatic stories of the late 70s and mix it with his late roots-rock sound, but in the end the song lacks any emotional punch and feels entirely calculated – a common trend throughout the album.

The album experiments with a variety of new sounds for Bruce, but all of them come off as utterly restrained and carefully designed, like the overproduced blues dirge “Good Eye,” which fails at being anything but boring. The chord progressions on the record are, like Magic's, all quite similar, and are not original enough to make up for that fact. “This Life,” Bruce’s latest attempt at a Spector-like production falls flat quickly because of the entirely uninteresting tune.

The two singles, “Working on a Dream” and “My Lucky Day,” are both vastly inferior to any single off 2002’s The Rising; the former is downright boring, while the latter’s semi-shouted vocals are interesting but the tune sounds like it’s a recycled version of Magic’s “Last to Die.” Also not helping the cause of this album is the fact that Max Weinberg’s uninspired, repetitive drumming is becoming progressively more annoying. Get rid of him already!

While reading this review, do you notice a trend here with the words recycled; boring; flat; restrained; and calculated? Yeah, that about sums up this record.

But just when those adjectives seep into your brain and you think the record couldn’t possibly get any lower without being utterly painful, it does. “Queen of the Supermarket,” Bruce’s latest entry in his series of occasional abominations including “57 Channels (and Nothin’ On)” and “American Skin (41 Shots),” is absolutely unbearable and inessential. Bruce tells the story of falling in love with the grocery checkout girl with such cringe-inducing blue-collar self-awareness that it makes you wonder whether he recognizes that his populist image is becoming increasingly deliberate and silly. It’s almost as if the Boss traded in his "Top songwriters of the 20th century" members card and stooped to the low level of opportunistic populist rockers like Bon Jovi or John Mellencamp for this song – something we Springsteen fans have long prayed would never happen.

To top it all off, Bruce drops an uncharacteristic F-bomb in the last few seconds of the song, almost as if he’s trying to further establish himself as a man of the blue-collar people. He falls in love with a grocery store clerk, writes a crappy song about it, and unnecessarily swears while doing so – he’s so real and so much like us regular people!

With the exception of Human Touch, Lucky Town, Magic, and this train-wreck of an album, I am intensely dedicated to Springsteen’s work. It’s unfortunate to see him become such a caricature of himself in so many ways, especially because his good records – including his solo efforts and the Seeger Sessions release – are all so refreshingly original and are what I consider to be definitive moments in modern rock history. In stark contrast to the glory days (no pun intended) of Bruce’s once-youthful and innovative music, these past two albums represent a Springsteen marred by sales ploys, populist image-mongering, unabashed recycling of ideas, and terrible album covers.

In my next post, I will make a case for Mr. Springsteen to take his music in a more pleasing direction, using five songs from the past two decades as examples for what sound I’d personally like to hear from him. I refuse to give up on you, Boss.

The Humongous End-of-Year Music Post

Normally I am wary of end-of-year lists because of the highly subjective nature of musical taste, and the fact that major publications often have to satisfy a particular readership. These lists never give any sort of criteria for ranking albums a certain way – and that’s understandable, given the fact that lists are entirely opinion-based and it is damn-near impossible to feign any sort of objectivity when formulating one. With that in mind, I’d like to share with you my top 20 albums and live performances of 2008, with one criterion to keep in mind: the albums and performances are ranked in the order that I personally enjoyed them overall, and not on their level of actual “importance” or critical acclaim. Please feel free to comment. Here goes:


Honorable Mentions: Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst; Laura Marling - Alas, I Cannot Swim; David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today; The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath; Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head; Elvis Costello and the Imposters - Momofuku.


20. Mugison – Mugiboogie
This peculiar Icelandic musical tinkerer crams the blues, crunchy metallic guitars, blissful pop melodies, and psych-metal into a Terry Gilliam-like surrealist piece of machinery; and the product is this endlessly intriguing hodgepodge of sounds. Mugison’s manic vocals frequently toggle between a Waitsian/Patton-like growl and a raspy folk voice – oftentimes within the same song – to create an album that unabashedly flaunts this eccentric madman’s oftentimes contradictory influences.


19. Murder by Death – Red of Tooth and Claw
On MBD’s fourth full-length, frontman Adam Turla’s baritone voice becomes eerily similar to Johnny Cash’s, spearheading the band’s gothic folk-country that paints an utterly bleak landscape full of the usual themes of death, revenge, fiery passion, and dark humor. Turla’s stories continue to conjure up dust storms, rolling tumbleweed, and the Old West, while remaining oddly relevant in scope and texture. While it pales in comparison to their previous efforts, this record is successfully packed with raunchy country-rockers and saloon ballads that sound like the new crossbreed between Ennio Morricone and Nick Cave.

18. Torche – Meanderthal
With Meanderthal, Torche have proven that heavy music can actually be gloriously beautiful by combining sludgy, oftentimes triumphant metallic guitars (a la Pelican) with blissful, genre-defying pop melodies. It is a true testament to this band’s abilities that they can so skillfully combine the volcanic eruption-in-slow-motion massiveness of bands like Isis with uplifting, anthemic melodies that are unusual for such doom-metal. Think of a Nordic horseman riding on a chrome-armored horse into the heart of darkness while surrounded by chirping birds and colorful flowers (see the cover of their self-titled debut LP), and that’s Torche’s latest record.

17. The Fireman – Electric Arguments
Under the moniker of The Fireman, Sir Paul McCartney and British producer Youth combine forces to create what amounts to one of Macca’s best musical efforts in recent memory. Though not officially a solo record, it has all the bittersweet poppiness of Memory Almost Full and the playful experimentation of the typical Sir Paul record. Youth’s production adds a Verve-like symphonic texture that propels the poppier tracks into anthemic territory; while crunchy guitars, fuzzy harmonica leads, and distorted vocals make for some of Macca’s bluesiest efforts to date (see opening stomper “Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight”).

16. Black Mountain – In the Future
In the Future marks the triumphant return of prog-rock – and I’m not talking about the self-conscious, downright silly variety made famous by Coheed & Cambria. I’m talking about the Zeppelin-like riffage-and-bombast prog that made a diverse camp of bands like Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, and Rush so appealing for multiple decades. Accompanied by crunchy blues-laden guitars and an apocalypse-invoking female choir, the opener “Stormy High” powerfully tosses the listener into a gargantuan of a record that never once lets up on its spacey atmospherics, stoner-rock riffage, and pummeling instrumentation.

15. The Tallest Man on Earth – Shallow Grave
The Tallest Man, Kristian Matsson, creates an earnest Americana soundscape that evokes Leadbelly, Appalachian folk, and, yes, pre-electric Dylan. However, his finger-picking is wholly idiosyncratic and his lyrical content reads more like whimsical fantasy than the usual Dylan fare. As a native Swede, Matsson breaks into this Americana from the outside. Though you wouldn’t be able to tell by listening, this rustic portrait of a fantastical world comes off as totally natural and unassuming – a refreshing thing in a world full of so many self-branded “Dylanesque” singer-songwriters.

14. TV on the Radio – Dear Science,
While far from being their best output, TVotR takes an interesting turn here towards a poppier dancy sound – tongue still firmly planted in cheek while continuing to scornfully tear apart war, politics, and racial tensions. Dave Sitek’s production still centers on his noise-wall-of-sound, which includes more electronic beats, horns, and funk beats in addition to the usual cymbal rushes and tremolo guitars. The album’s opener (“Halfway Home”) and closer (“Lover’s Day”) are tremendous songs that are alone worth the price of admission.

13. Beach House – Devotion
Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally continue their brand of haunting, lovelorn psych-pop, rife with retro electronic drums, shuffling tempos, and Legrand’s soft, lingering Nico-like vocals. This lonely, minimalistic autumnal record is guaranteed to envelop the listener, especially in the organ-driven “Gila,” which comes off as a psychedelic funeral dirge with its combination of a persistent organ and Legran’s hauntingly gorgeous vocal melodies floating about. This is an album that truly deserves the accompaniment of a dark, candlelit room.

12. The Dodos – Visiter
From the foot taps and buzzing of finger-picked guitar strings on opener “Walking” to the West African polyrhythmic drumming that permeates songs like “Red and Purple” and “The Season,” this freak-folk record spans across a great variety of styles while remaining entirely focused. The album’s highlight “Fools” is a sped up take on pop-folk – think: the Avett Brothers on acid -- that neatly encompasses most of the Dodo’s varying styles of country-blues, acid folk, African drumming, and heavily-distorted guitars (a la Neutral Milk Hotel) in just under five minutes.

11. She & Him – Volume One
Acclaimed actress Zooey Deschanel combined forces with indie vet M. Ward to create this set of sunshine-drenched tunes steeped in 50 years worth of musical influences -- ranging from Dusty Springfield to the Zombies -- all without the stench of self-congratulation that permeates most actor-gone-musician recordings. Ward’s guitar work is quirky as usual, providing a stimulating backdrop for Deschanel’s charming pop-country ditties that manage to never take themselves too seriously (see the band’s irresistible first music video).

10. Shearwater – Rook
Frontman Jonathan Meiburg’s obsession with majestic birds and the eternal splendor of the natural world heavily manifests itself in this gorgeous record which could easily serve as nature’s official post-rock soundtrack (move over, Sigur Rós?). As obvious musical heirs to Talk Talk’s legendary final album Laughing Stock, Shearwater builds upon that sound by mixing the former’s lush, atmospheric arrangements – rife with dulcimers, woodwinds, and harps – with jagged rockers like “Century Eyes” and the rumbling epic “The Snow Leopard”. The album soars as high as Meiburg’s beloved birds and lulls as softly as a small creek in some distant forest, providing an impressive glimpse at what to expect next from this band.

9. Sigur Rós – Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
Iceland’s most famous post-rock band significantly departs here from their previously ethereal, brooding style for a more playful, jovial sound. Full of whimsical “la-la” choruses, group hand-claps, acoustic instrumentation, and folk-pop melodies, the album’s opener and highlight “Gobbledigook” embodies the festive spirit of the album. Jónsi Birgisson's soaring falsetto continues to be emotionally evocative, regardless of the ongoing language barrier. While only those of us who speak Icelandic will understand the lyrics, the music itself conveys something utterly universal: pure, unadulterated joy.

8. Cold War Kids – Loyalty to Loyalty
After their 2006 debut helped inspire the term “blog-rock,” many critics expected an inevitable sophomore slump with this record. However, by boldly ditching the bluesy pop of their first record for a jazzier, sparser sound, the Kids have created an impressive, albeit uneven, snapshot of anxiety and uncertainty in the contemporary world. The urgently paced “I’ve Seen Enough” may very well be the band’s best song to date, and is a highlight among the album’s intriguingly creative tunes that, for me, surpass the freshness of their first record and doubly reward the patient listener.

7. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Hype band of the century Vampire Weekend took the music industry by storm earlier this year with the frenzy surrounding the release of their self-titled debut. Garnering endless comparisons to Peter Gabriel, Afro-pop, and Paul Simon’s Graceland, the band has been well-received by both Pitchfork adherents and the frat-boy mtvU crowd because of their intelligent mixture of complicated rhythms, Wes Anderson-like quirkiness, and a breezy, free-spirited poppiness. The ability of this band to bring together such polar opposite crowds speaks volumes about the music’s overall accessibility; and this fact should not dissuade the potential listener from giving this adventurous record a good ol’ college try.

6. Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
Though it is billed as a solo album, this record feels more like a classic “…and Friends” collaborative record, given the long list of cameos (M. Ward, Elvis Costello, Chris Robinson, etc.), the timeless analog production, the freewheeling pop homages, and the gather-‘round-the-campfire feel. Lewis’ songwriting here is more expressive than ever, and it retains the occasional psychedelics of her debut solo record, 2006’s Rabbit Fur Coat. Coolly wandering through gospel-tinged blues-rockers, electrifying pop medleys, and sparse psych-folk tunes, Ms. Lewis comes off as confident, soulful, and downright sexy. This solid record demonstrates that her creativity and originality did not die with Rilo Kiley’s latest album, and cements her place, with Neko Case and Leslie Feist, among the upper echelon of female singer-songwriters of recent memory.

5. The Black Keys – Attack & Release
A previously straightforward garage-blues rock band collaborating with hip-hop producer Brian Burton (a.k.a. Danger Mouse) would seem like a dangerous combination at first, but the results on this record prove it can be done skillfully and without straying too far from the Keys’ standard sound. Burton’s production adds ghostly choirs, occasional electronic funk beats, banjos, woodwinds, and reed instruments to the Keys’ stripped down Kimbrough-meets-Zeppelin style of blues rock. The collaboration is particularly successful in songs like “I Got Mine,” which showcases guitarist Dan Auerbach’s towering guitar riffage and Burton’s production touches.

4. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Rock and roll’s most literate troubadour/owner of the coolest mustache ever, Nick Cave, and his boisterous Bad Seeds, age gracefully with what might be the best release of the band’s collective career. Cave’s lyrics teem with the usual literary allusions, brilliant puns, and snarky cynicism that make his persona so captivating and utterly badass; and the band’s instrumentation takes on a refreshingly garage-rock sound that mixes the electric distortion of side-project Grinderman with the best of recent Bad Seeds’ records. This mixture results in a near-universally acclaimed album that has enough low-brow swagger to out-sexify the Stones and enough high-brow intellect and charm to satisfy Caveophiles -- an impressive feat for a collection of men aging well into their fifties.

3. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes’ debut record is an inescapably brilliant one. From the moment we are introduced to the record’s 1-2 punch in “Sun It Rises” and “White Winter Hymnal”, it is understood that this is a modern musical benchmark in the making. The simple synthesis of Appalachian folk, classic rock, and late-60s psych-pop makes for an endearing record that showcases some of the best vocal interplay since the Beach Boys. The reverb-drenched vocals and creaky acoustic guitars make for a haunting, almost gospel-like sonic texture that is at once uplifting and heartbreaking. Though I did not place this record at the number one slot for 2008, it will undoubtedly outlive any record on this list as a truly American modern classic.

2. Dr. Dog – Fate
A persistent theme among my top three records is the affinity for the nostalgia and whimsy of the classic records of rock’s first few decades, as well as the organic qualities of pre-rock music. Philadelphia’s Dr. Dog takes their fascination with the earnestness of Americana and have added their offbeat psychedelic tricks to the mixture – resulting in a New Weird Americana that’s reminiscent of Dylan and the Band’s The Basement Tapes. Creaky tape loop noises, warm four-part harmonies, swooning strings and horns, jangling pop melodies, and rapidly shifting tempos are all some of the tools the band employs freely; all while coming off as totally confident and mature after several albums of fledgling experimentation. The band’s arrangements play nicely to the overall themes of anxiety, fate, and the constraints of time, which project as entirely candid and make for an exciting, challenging, and emotionally affecting listen.

1. The Walkmen – You & Me
When I first heard Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde on vinyl, I was struck by how cohesive such a lengthy album could be, and how it seems as though today’s musicians don’t even attempt to create such sprawling records. The Walkmen’s fourth LP, You & Me -- with its fourteen tracks and near-hour running time -- has the exact expansiveness that makes such records so enthralling. After several inconsistently playful records culminating with 2006’s A Hundred Miles Off, which first explored Dylan-meets-calypso territory, the Walkmen have finally grown comfortable in their collective musical skin, creating a steady and rewarding album.

Hamilton Leithauser’s Dylan-like yelp has subdued to a more reflective Leonard Cohen croon that flows smoothly with the sepia-toned arrangements the band puts forth. Recalling vivid memories of love, vacations, and warm nights, the album’s overall tone is dizzyingly nostalgic, and its poignant waltzes and barroom ballads could easily fit as the soundtrack to your grandfather’s old 45mm films of lazy summers in the 1950s. The tom-heavy drumming and dreamy reverb-soaked guitars invoke the swooning vintage spirits of early Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, and Elvis recordings. The woozy horns showcased in wistful ballads like “Red Moon” and “Canadian Girl” are deeply evocative, while the swelling organ-led chorus of “In the New Year” makes it one of the finest singles of the year.

You & Me surely demands quality time be spent with it -- much like its spiritual predecessors of the 1960s -- and the end result of such patience is a spirited connection with a somberly sweet and sweepingly sentimental record.


Top Ten Performances of the Year
10. Explosions in the Sky, The Norva, Norfolk, VA
9. Delta Spirit, Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington, DC
8. The Black Keys, Terminal 5, New York, NY
7. The Walkmen, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
6. Sigur Rós, Grand Ballroom, New York, NY
5. Fleet Foxes, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
4. Dr. Dog, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
3. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
2. Radiohead, All Points West Festival, Jersey City, NJ
1. Tom Waits, Ohio Theatre, Columbus, OH


Back to Main Page

A New and Expensive Deal

Yesterday, President-Elect Barack Obama unveiled his plans for massive federal "investment" and "job creations" in infrastructure, education, energy, health care, and technology. This announcement comes in the wake of news that employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years. The plan will certainly cost several hundred billion dollars, yet the President-Elect never once uses the words "spend" or "tax" or "deficit," instead -- and naturally, given the incentives of his position -- using fluffy words like "invest," "save," and "create." Here's a look at his five key points, copied from the Politico article, with my own commentary following each:

—ENERGY: “[W]e will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.”

Not to be a cynic or anything, but it's interesting how Mr. Obama's key point in this portion is that overhauling federal buildings to be more energy-efficient will save us, the American taxpayers, billions of dollars each year, all while ignoring the possibility that such an overhaul could impose enormous costs on the taxpayers in the short-run. Green technologies aren't always cheaper, and we could certainly not expect the federal government to take the cheapest solution when trying to do this.

Another interesting point to note: Mr. Obama recognizes that the federal government has the highest energy bill in the world, indirectly recognizing that it is governments and publicly-owned firms that have the highest incentives to pollute and be the least energy-efficient. Government doesn't run on the profit motive, and we see all over the world -- especially in places like Russia and China -- where state-monopolies and politically-connected firms are taking an enormous toll on the environment in those respective countries.

—ROADS AND BRIDGES: “[W]e will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.”

Again: how are we going to pay for all of these "investments" without raising taxes for two years as promised? And where are his economic advisors when someone needs to explain to him that creating jobs out of thin air, especially without allowing wages to fall, is not sustainable nor is it practical. The public choice school of political economy would predict that the jobs created would be mostly for union workers, at the expense of the poorer lower-skilled workers who are not politically favorable or not union-connected; we saw this during FDR's New Deal. I conducted research on this exact subject a few years ago, and the data showed that the bulk of FDR's new infrastructure "jobs," under the Works Progress Administration, went disproportionately to the states that mattered most for a Roosevelt victory in the 1936 presidential election, and not to the states that actually had the most job losses and poverty.

In addition, I love Mr. Obama's inclusion of the term "use it or lose it" as the rule his administration will set in order to assure a more "intelligent" investment in various infrastructure projects. This concept completely ignores the incentives that actually exist for bureaucrats, namely budget-maximization, where bureaucrats have every incentive to maximize or over-spend their department or office's budget in order to guarantee the reception of more funds in the future from relatively uninformed, inexpert legislators. If you're a politician and you receive funds from the federal government to use at your discretion for "infrastructure," of course you are going to "use" it all and not want to "lose" any of it -- even if the costs of the actually necessary infrastructure projects are far less than the amount of money received. I would expect to see states attempting to maximize the amount of money they receive while spending a good portion of it on bureaucratic needs only tangentially related to "infrastructure" and "job creation," in addition to some questionable infrastructure projects.

—SCHOOLS: “[M]y economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.”

I see this becoming a tired question during the Obama administration, but, once more, here goes: How are we going to pay for all of this? He never once mentions tax increases, deficit increases, or monetizing the debt, etc. Of course not.

One can only expect that these massive upgrades of public schools will certainly be constrained by the desires of the almighty teacher unions, and will deal exclusively with union-approved firms and budgets. You might call me a cynic for making such a prediction, but economic logic -- in addition to evidence from the past -- proves me to be a realist.

—BROADBAND: “As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m president – because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world.”

It is unacceptable to Mr. Obama that the United States ranks 15th in the world for broadband adoption? Aren't there much more pressing issues that he could label as "unacceptable"? For instance, isn't the fact that Federal Reserve makes decisions in almost complete secrecy, with no public accountability, something that could be branded "unacceptable"? Or how about the fact that the federal government pledges to invest in the production of alternative, more energy-efficient fuel sources, all while effectively prohibiting the importation of a relatively efficient one (sugar-based ethanol) and subsidizing the daylights out of a relatively inefficient, but politically-favorable one (corn ethanol). Isn't that something that could be considered "unacceptable"? But, no, the fact that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption is certainly unacceptable and the federal government must do something to stop this atrocity.

And need I ask it again? Really? Okay, fine: How are we going to pay for all of this? There, you made me do it. Now answer it, please? What's that? Oh, you say you want to first tell me about your plan for investing in electronic medical record sharing? I apologize -- do go ahead, Mr. President-Elect...

—ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS: “In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the Internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the Internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.”

The health care industry is one giant mess of adverse incentives created by the entanglement of government, business, and clamoring special interests. I'm not sure that having more federal mandates on the industry is going to be entirely effective, but Mr. Obama has a crowd to appease and putting the issues in this terminology will certainly work for him politically, at the very least.

Finally, this section -- as well as the other four -- again begs the question: How are we going to pay for all of this? We can expect to never get a clear answer on that from Mr. Obama, but here is what I predict will be the unsaid answer:

If President Obama sticks to his "no taxes for two years" promise, he can still indirectly raise taxes by uncapping the FICA tax -- which will most assuredly happen. However, it is unlikely the Obama administration will be able to hold off on raising taxes until the Bush tax cuts expire, and so I predict a tax increase. If neither of these two actions are taken to fund these projects, then we can expect more of the usual monetization of debt, meaning the federal government using the Fed to print more money out of thin air in order to reduce the value of debt owed by the government. This, in turn, acts as an indirect inflation tax on the average American's holdings.

In short: you will be taxed, one way or another. Here's to another 8 years of more of the same.

Back to Main Page

Bailouts, Bailouts, Bailouts

What happens when the federal government begins to demonstrate its willingness to dish out massive amounts of relief money for failing businesses? You get the following headlines:

Lobbyists Swarm the Treasury for Piece of Bailout Pie

With bailout passed, lobbyists look to get in the game

Companies start competing for bailout money

Wall St. bailout causes lobbying frenzy

Want Government Money? Apply Now!

Get the point? When the government promises to socialize (or effectively pay for) a failing business' losses, it's only natural that businesses and their accompanying lobbyists run straight to Capitol Hill to demonstrate to lawmakers why their business is "too big to fail" and so a federal bailout package for their firm is necessary. Why? Well, as the title of this blog is meant to suggest: people respond to incentives. Guaranteeing protection from failure reinforces poor business decisions and also encourages businesses to exaggerate poor performance in order to receive a share of the federal handouts.

Incentives are something that policymakers often -- if not always -- ignore when creating legislation they perceive to be necessary for regulating market activity. Perhaps the faith-healers up on Capitol Hill should have recognized that people respond to incentives when they mandated and encouraged poor lending practices on the part of financial firms, effectively contributing to the housing bubble/burst and the subsequent financial crisis.

**Speaking of which, are you interested in a cut of the $700 billion pie from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)? If so, you may apply here! Only five pages long! Hopefully you can demonstrate your too-big-to-fail-ness. Good luck!