Time Well Spent

Good to know what the House is up to these days, beer is pretty important.

My family recently drove to the Bay Area of CA for my aunt's wedding. I wish I could have been in attendance, but was honored to be in my roommate, Matt's wedding the same weekend in New Mexico. It was great.

But while my family was driving home on Sunday I was talking with them on the phone, and my dad said he had trouble hearing me due to the poor condition of the roads. This was along a major interstate highway, the famous I-5. He made the (I would say correct) connection between the poor road conditions and the state's budget crisis. California is a case in point of what happens to governments that do not operate within the realm of economic reality. Things simply cannot be doled out or consumed without some cost. Pretty soon governments must face reality, usually in the form of recessions, inflation, collapse of the state, etc. The Federal government has a little more time to delay the inevitable due to their ability to print money, unlike states. If a state does it, it's illegal. But somehow the Federal Government can do it through the Federal Reserve which is overseen by congress. The Fed produces a valueless paper rather than a valuable coin. The Constitution permits congress to coin money and fix the standard of weights and measures but prohibits states from coining money. Illusions rarely remain illusions for long.