Inside Tad's Mind

This morning I received an email news letter from the Ludwig von Mises Institute linking to an article by Frank Shostak that describes his view that the Federal Reserve's pumping of cash into the economy is inflationary. His position is that the current decreases in commercial credit do not effect the overall money supply. On October 5, Elliot Wave International's Bill Fox wrote that the US in neither in a disinflationary nor an inflationary economy, but in a deflationary economy. For those that are unaccustomed to economic terminology, or may have forgotten, Inflation is an overall increase in the total amount of money in the economy, disinflation occurs when the rate of inflation is decreased, and deflation occurs when the supply of money decreases. The effect of inflation is rising prices, while the effect of deflation is falling prices. reflation is an attempt by government to return the money supply to its previous levels once deflation has set in. Normally, the folks a...

A friend of mine and I were debating on the issue of same sex marriage the other day, and my friend made an appeal to the authority of LDS Apostle Dallin Oakes' recent conference address. I like Elder Oakes. I've always thought he was a pretty cool church leader, but I found his conference address to be just a little on the hypocritical side. Oakes talked about "irrevocable laws" decreed in heaven, and how such laws are the predicates upon which blessings are obtained. His context was the love of parents toward their children, and acceptance (or non-acceptance) of behavior the church considers "incorrect." Okay, so far so good, but... Lets take a look at three central tenets of LDS doctrine: 1. It is Satan's plan to require complete obedience and Jesus' plan to allow free agency. 2. God will not give different revelation to different people; all teachings of church leaders are subject to verification by "personal" revelation. 3. The Const...

The opinion piece below was written for publication in the Salt Lake Tribune concurrent with the LDS Church's October General Conference. The Trib couldn't fit it in, so it is published here. My vote in the sustaining was communicated to both the First Presidency and my local ward Bishop separately. This weekend, members of the LDS Church will gather in their great and spacious building on North Temple for their semi-annual General Conference. During one of the sessions, members will be asked to raise their hands in sustaining votes for church leaders. I will not be in attendance, so I will use this article as a means of casting my vote in the negative for all of the Church’s General Authorities who promote and support the church’s policy of “encouraging” all unwed mothers to relinquish their babies for adoption. This encouragement comes in the form of extreme pressure from church leaders and devout family and friends. This policy, which the church stops short of saying is...