The Individualist Anarchism of “Horton”

I can’t say enough good things about the film version of “Horton Hears a Who!“ now in theaters. I’ve generally tended to avoid these film adaptations, which stray too far from the original book and introduce strange twists, usually something designed to preach left-liberal ideology, that just end up being a bother and a distraction. None of this is true of Horton. Yes, it elaborates on the original but in seamless ways that actually end up enhancing the value of the story.

Bookstores in Trouble

Sadly, Borders Group, Inc. is in trouble and it’s up for sale. More and more of these companies continue to drop as consumers pinch pennies on wanna-have but don’t-need items. I listened to analysts talking about this on Bloomberg yesterday, and they don’t seem to really get it. There was a discussion of ways in which Borders can improve sales, and one of them was new book club memberships to be offered by Borders.

The War on Recession

So what could it possibly mean to claim that the economy must never be allowed to fall into recession? I’m thinking here of similar claims: * “That drunk is sobering up. Quick, give him a shot of tequila!” * “That druggie is coming out of his acid trip. Get the syringe!” * “Don’t look now but that insomniac is going to sleep. Someone wake him!” Now, it’s fair to say that the person hollering out the solution to each of the above scenarios doesn’t really understand the nature of the problem. So it is with the Fed. It sees stocks falling, credit markets under pressure, unemployment rising, investment falling. But rather than conclude that all these factors represent a bubble, it has the opposite response: keep the bubble inflated at all costs!