Posted on 08/17/2008 11:45:10 PM PDT by ricks_place
Perverse monetary policy was the greatest cause of the Great Depression. But five non-monetary missteps were important in making the Depression great, and the same missteps damaged the global economy as well. While many are thinking about the Depression, few seem concerned about replicating these Foolish Five today:
· Giving in to protectionism. In Herbert Hoover's time, Sen. Reed Smoot and Rep. W.C. Hawley proposed a tariff that was to raise effective duties by as much as half...Yet again, one party -- the Democrats, this time -- is cavalier. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is blocking passage of these bilateral agreements. And another ambivalent politician -- Sen. Barack Obama -- has sent mixed messages to Canada about just how much he wants to roll back the North American Free Trade Agreement.
· Blaming the messenger. Punishing the stock market for the 1929 crash was popular in Washington in the early 1930s.
· Increasing taxes in a downturn. Hoover more than doubled income tax rates...Today, Democrats are planning tax increases that make Bill Clinton's hike look mild.
· Assuming bigger government will bring back growth. There's a sense today that Washington has retreated too much from daily lives... Works Progress Administration, the Public Works Administration or the Civilian Conservation Corps. But economics is a competition for scarce capital.
· Ignoring the cost of inconsistency. FDR spoke of "bold persistent experimentation." Obama speaks of "change." Both can do damage.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Democrats answer to slow growth is always more taxes.
They call the Republican party the stupid party, but you really can’t top the Democrats for stupidity.
A pretty good article, the author is certainly correct that protection, tax increases, increased regulation and uncertainty are bad for economic growth, but I have a few complaints about the article:
1. We are in an expansion and have been since 2001. In the 7th year an expansion is not generally called a recovery. Recovery from what?
2. The 1937 contraction was due to a great extent a monetary policy or if you like a tax increase on financial intermediation due to the Fed’s silly increase in reserve requirements.
Still it is quite interesting to have the Washington Post publishing this opinion pointing the flaws in current Dim policy prescriptions during a time the growing economy looks fragile.
they are not really stupid ,they are evil hypocrits,who really could care less about anyone,but themselves
Amity Shlaes is a conservative author writing a guest piece, so this does not necessarily represent anything about WaPo except that they were willing to let her be heard. That much they get credit for, but don’t equate this one op-ed column with the WaPo hierarchy or editorial board.
If you see a Democrat shooting another tax bullet into our economy every time it moves, then maybe, just maybe, they are trying to kill it.
Her book is fantastic. Highly Recommend it
We're recovering from the worst economy since the Great Depression. No, that was 2004 when the Democrats and the Liberal Media were lying to us trying to get Kerry elected.
Now we're recovering from the recession that hasn't really started yet but the media and the Democrats are lying to us trying to get Obama elected. Maybe we just need to recover from the media and the Democrats lying to us about the economy and how they want to Change it.
Inflation is a good thing when it comes to tires but drilling is a much better idea when it comes to lowering gas prices.
It generally takes a Republican to fix a Democrat mistake, after the voters listen to lies and promises of Democrats to raid the Treasury for them.
Ditto. She's a very good writer--easy to read and understand.
Amity Shlaes is also pretty good at the podium....I think I saw her @ AEI or Heritage talking about her book re the FDR economic failures. She has the D’s pegged for their economic frauds.
Just after the "Crash" . ., and for the next few years the largest amount of the largest denomination bills ever printed were printed(& brother, I mean large, like $10,000 bills, lot's of'um, look it up).
http://www.thecurrencyhouse.com/index.cfm?pgx=historyofnotes
Why and what for?
Evidently a lot of money went somewhere...........
"Gutzunheit!"
Auf Wiedersehen
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