Posted on 12/16/2008 6:06:01 AM PST by Entrepreneur
As January 20 nears, Barack Obama's ambitions for spending on the likes of roads, bridges and jobless benefits keep growing. The latest leak puts the "stimulus" at $1 trillion over a couple of years, and the political class is embracing it as a miracle cure.
Not to spoil the party, but this is not a new idea. Keynesian "pump-priming" in a recession has often been tried, and as an economic stimulus it is overrated. The money that the government spends has to come from somewhere, which means from the private economy in higher taxes or borrowing. The public works are usually less productive than the foregone private investment.
In the Age of Obama, we seem fated to re-explain these eternal lessons. So for today we thought we'd recount the history of the last major country that tried to spend its way to "stimulus" -- Japan during its "lost decade" of the 1990s. In 1992, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa faced falling property prices and a stock market that had sunk 60% in three years. Mr. Miyazawa's Liberal Democratic Party won re-election promising that Japan would spend its way to becoming a "lifestyle superpower." The country embarked on a great Keynesian experiment:
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The article is worth reading. I only wish we could assign debt based on votes. Those who put this socialist clown in the Oval Office should bear proportionately greater consequences.
God save the republic (we don't seem able to).
I place a great big GUILTY on the forehead of every liberal I read about, especially those having the 24/7 political orgasmic orgy at DU with their messiah.
Amazing how quick McCain dropped his cut corporate taxes and slash capital gains taxes mantra to get back on the One’s good graces........
I like your philosophy and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Japan's economy grow anemically over that decade, but as the nearby chart shows, its national debt exploded.
“Now we’re told that a similar spending program — a new New Deal — will revive the U.S. economy. How do you say “good luck” in Japanese?”
Rotsa Ruk.
Unfortunately, many people are willing to embrace ANYthing at this point.
The tragedy of the Bush Administration had nothing to do with the WOT (actually Bush performed excellent)
The tragedy was that Bush didn't recognize that the dark forces inside the US and around the world (in 2007 and 2008) were deliberately sabatoging the US economy thru contrived oil price spikes and by starving US industries of credit-liquidity.
Those who suffered big losses in their life savings are borderline desperate at this point, and not thinking too clearly.
I believe that’s Chinese. :-)
I mix those two up...lol.
I wonder if the “new” administration will set up CCC camps and WPA works? HUH??? HUH???
Yep, one of the biggest dark force at work was x42 running around the world telling their leaders not to pay any attention to the new President.
Maybe 0be can build miles of toll road to be sold to the Spanish. The toll roads in IL are an efficiency nightmare.
Sounds more like Kenyanesian economics is what we need.
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