Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Last week, Dallas' 100 year old Hard Rock Cafe building, originally home to the McKinney Avenue Baptist Church, was demolished. Trey Garrison, in Frontburner, takes great satisfaction in seeing a Dallas historic landmark demolished. He asks, "What exactly is with the drive to designate every old, useless, run-down property a historic landmark." The simple answer is that his premise is false. Straw men make such easy targets. There is no drive to designate every old, useless, run-down property a historic landmark. But there is interest in the historic, cultural, and architectural heritage of the city. Some buildings are sources of community sentiment or pride and deserve recognition and preservation. Garrison may take pleasure in seeing landmarks demolished ("Another Landmark Demolished. Good."), but others will strive to see his pleasure deferred. Good.
Quit Digging
Dallas Blog's William Murchison, who has more expertise in ancient Greek than in economics, offers his own theory on why the economy is sinking into recession. It's not the yawning federal deficits we've had since George W. Bush took office. It's not the ballooning oil price, trade deficit, or shrinking dollar. It's not the bursting housing bubble and bursting subprime credit bubble.
No, the reason is that government is taking in more more money than is needed to pay for government. (Apparently, Murchison thinks we have a secret surplus.) The reason is not too little regulation of financial markets, but too much. (Apparently, Murchison thinks mortgage companies were too constrained. Poor credit risks are not able to buy enough house or get enough credit on revolving credit cards.)
Following Murchison's prescription for the economy has dug us a deep hole that will take a generation to climb out of. Yet Murchison's only advice is to dig faster.
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