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Stein’s Law
National Review ^ | July 26, 2013 | National Review

Posted on 07/26/2013 6:42:34 AM PDT by National Review

Like Detroit, things that can’t go on forever don’t.

By Charles Krauthammer

If there’s an iron rule in economics, it is Stein’s Law (named after Herb, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers): “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”

Detroit, for example, can no longer go on borrowing, spending, raising taxes, and dangerously cutting such essential services as street lighting and police protection. So it stops. It goes bust.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: charleskrauthammer; detroit; herbstein
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Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/354461/steins-law-charles-krauthammer
1 posted on 07/26/2013 6:42:34 AM PDT by National Review
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To: National Review

“Nothing Lasts Forever, Unless it Does”

Pat Harrington


2 posted on 07/26/2013 6:46:46 AM PDT by headstamp 2 (What would Scooby do?)
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To: National Review

There are a lot of things that contributed to Detroit’s problems. The thing that gave all of them the power to implement Detroit’s destruction, is the Democrat party. The Democrat party must be dismantled in order for things to improve.


3 posted on 07/26/2013 6:53:38 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: C. Edmund Wright
Krauthammer echoing your latest article ping.

It doesn’t take a genius to see what happens when the entitlement state outgrows the economy upon which it rests. The time of Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, the rest of insolvent social-democratic Europe — and now Detroit — is the time for conservatives to raise the banner of Stein’s Law and yell “Stop.” You can kick the can down the road, but at some point it disappears over a cliff.

4 posted on 07/26/2013 6:55:25 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: National Review

Detroit will emerge from Bankruptcy with a new chance to make a go of it.

Within ten years, they will be back to their old ways, unable to pay their bills, and using a specialist to work out their financial shortfalls.

The people of Detroit will blame the bankruptcy court and Republicans.

Corruption is not cleansed by a bankruptcy - only creditors are.


5 posted on 07/26/2013 7:04:44 AM PDT by LachlanMinnesota
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To: Servant of the Cross; cripplecreek

Yeah, I’m glad I have a long published record of being well ahead of Krauthammer for about six years.....and I used to think the man was smart....


6 posted on 07/26/2013 7:05:17 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: LachlanMinnesota
Corruption is not cleansed by a bankruptcy - only creditors are.

Care to splain that?

7 posted on 07/26/2013 7:06:07 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

You really need someone to explain that?

If so, and explanation will not help.


8 posted on 07/26/2013 7:16:53 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN
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To: CIB-173RDABN

Well aren’t we a smart ass today. I was being polite. Let me try again.

This statement is wrong. Why are you so decieved? How are “creditors” cleansed? They are the ones who get screwed? Or, do you not know what a “creditor” is?


9 posted on 07/26/2013 7:18:32 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

Perhaps the idea is that with bankruptcy, your creditors are wiped away — you don’t have to pay them. The creditors are screwed, but the entity declaring bankruptcy is cleansed of that problem.

But a tendency toward corruption is harder to get rid of. Bankruptcy will not fix that problem.


10 posted on 07/26/2013 7:23:51 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (21st century. I'm not a fan.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

My focus was on the “creditors getting cleansed” statement. That is simply not the case, you your last post pointed out. They get shafted. As for bankruptcy not solving corruption, I have no qualms with that idea.


11 posted on 07/26/2013 7:25:10 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: National Review
Corruption of the criminal sort was legendary. The former mayor currently serving time engaged in a breathtaking range of fraud, extortion, and racketeering. And he didn’t act alone. The legal corruption was the cozy symbiosis of Democratic politicians and powerful unions, especially the public-sector unions that gave money to elect the politicians who negotiated their contracts — with wildly unsustainable health and pension benefits.

Some of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the Country are clustered around Washington DC. Government workers are not producers... they're live on the skim...

The same game played in Detroit is being played in DC - - paper shufflers assist politicians who grant them more power, reach and cash...

Our 'public servants' are living better than everyday Americans and they're bankrupting the country - just like unions did in Detroit - with the help of grateful politicians. It's the 'IRS Way'...

12 posted on 07/26/2013 7:41:48 AM PDT by GOPJ (Democrat dream: An America for everyone but Americans... freeper molson209)
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To: C. Edmund Wright; CIB-173RDABN
This statement is wrong. Why are you so decieved? How are “creditors” cleansed? They are the ones who get screwed? Or, do you not know what a “creditor” is?

Perhaps you should pay attention to how the statement is worded. CIB-173RDABN is correct, you shouldn't have to have that statement explained to you. It means that the only thing being "cleansed" by bankruptcy are the debts of the people owing the money. In other words the creditors are "cleansed" from the cities books. Nothing was said about the creditor's being given a good deal. They are screwed. The corruption that caused the debt, however, is still there and will only manifest itself again down the road, with the results of another bunch of creditor's being "cleansed" from the books. Got it now?

13 posted on 07/26/2013 7:42:16 AM PDT by calex59
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To: ClearCase_guy

Your statement explains mine.

Bankruptcy is like cleaning toilets.

The porcelain is cleansed white, but then it is used again, in the same way.

Anyone doing business with Detroit after the bankruptcy on anything other than a cash basis is certainly asking for the same result.


14 posted on 07/26/2013 7:47:29 AM PDT by LachlanMinnesota
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To: calex59

Creditors being cleansed......and creditors being cleansed from the city books - mean the OPPOSITE. Words mean things. A lack of words thus means something. The question I was asking was what is meant by “creditors being cleansed?” Had he/she said “creditors are cleansed from the books” the statement would have been correct, and I would have had no quibble with it.

English much? Got it now?

As for the corruption angle, I had no quibble with that from the get go....


15 posted on 07/26/2013 7:48:57 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: LachlanMinnesota

It won’t happen, but my idea for “fixing” Detroit goes like this:

Make all the people move out. All of them.
Bulldoze all the buildings. All of them.
Sell the land by the acre to anyone with real money.
Build a new city from scratch: No criminal class, no debts, no unions, no pension liabilities, no aging infrastructure, no one in the city who does have real investment in building a workable city.

It’s the equivalent of “taking off and nuking the city from orbit”. It’s the only way to be sure.


16 posted on 07/26/2013 7:51:37 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (21st century. I'm not a fan.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

There is a reason the bankruptcy court trustee takes the bankrupts’ credit cards away from them.


17 posted on 07/26/2013 8:03:05 AM PDT by LachlanMinnesota
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To: National Review

The problem with liberalism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money.


18 posted on 07/26/2013 8:24:05 AM PDT by Buckeye Battle Cry (Audentis Fortuna Iuvat)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
They get shafted.

Taking a stupid risk for a marginally higher rate of return and then being forced to accept the obvious consequences is not 'getting shafted.' Dealing in economic heroin doesn't do the junkie any service.

19 posted on 07/26/2013 8:35:20 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (Islam offers choices: convert, submit, or die.)
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To: Carry_Okie

I was talking about creditors in general in bankruptcy....the notion that all creditors are doing something stupid for rate of return sounds very liberal and anti free enterprise.


20 posted on 07/26/2013 8:38:09 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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