Posted on 03/04/2010 8:19:10 AM PST by Arthur Wildfire! March
While most of the world is recovering economically, the US continues to flounder. Greece is highly unionized. Result? Chaos.
Is that our trial canary? We know that tax cuts work. Please feel to help with informative / shocking links regarding economics, government budgeting, what triggered the meltdown, Obama-nomics, and/or Greece.
Merkel Calls For “Orderly Insolvencies” [Germany and Greece Meltdown]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2506217/posts
That $421.8 Billion we ‘loaned’ out in March sure helped:
Greece Gets $146 Billion Rescue in EU, IMF Package (Update1 ...
May 3, 2010 ... Euro-region ministers agreed to a 110 billion-euro ($146 billion) rescue package for Greece to prevent a default and stop the worst crisis ...
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqUKE
Total [most likely for all Europe] was over 400 billion ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2464021/posts?page=121#121
Greek protests turn violent [We didn’t give them enough yet ???]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2505151/posts
Biden: We’re In A “Depression”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2504079/posts
Federal Government Outpaces Private Sector in Job Creation...
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.f4ca4a183df2102e9ad9338f1c9b7c75.171&show_article=1
[To watch porno with tax-funded computers?]
European Central Bank President: Global Governance ‘extremely necessary’...
http://blogs.forbes.com/face-to-face/2010/04/29/ecb-president-favors-global-governance
Federal agency charged with rescuing failing pensions — failed its own audit!
http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2061
WASTE? [Or we don’t trust the One?] U.S. has 71 million unused flu vaccine doses...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN0318959620100503
‘Vitamin bill’ sneaked into Wall St Reform legislation?
http://www.naturalnews.com/028687_Henry_Waxman_health_freedom.html
MOVE OVER, BANKERS: BIG PAYDAYS FOR CHIEFS OF TOP MEDIA COMPANIES...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/business/media/03pay.html
Ambulance chasers and trial lawyers have a way of leeching our economy too. DNC is in their hip pocket.
STARBUCKS sued over hot tea alleged to cause burns...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64254J20100503?type=domesticNews
[Was there a warning-label-for-idiots on the cups, I wonder?]
Inflation up 2% in March...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100503/bs_afp/useconomyinflation_20100503125400
LIST: 20 most stressed, least stressed counties in USA...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100503/ap_on_bi_ge/us_stress_map_list
Obamacare encourages businesses to keep wages low
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2506335/posts
[Businesses that pay their employees a smaller amount get a larger tax credit]
Recap on Greek Bailout DISASTER ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2507084/posts?page=40#40
$421.8 total, $146 Billion to Greece alone. Last March. Down rat hole.
Three dead as Greek strike grows violent (Eventually a strongman will have to quell this disorder)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2507084/posts
“Eventually a strongman will have to quell this disorder”
Be VERY careful with that observation...that’s what the ‘Rats are shooting for here...with ‘Bammy...hopefully before the fall “elections” ....
I had copied the headline, FRiend.
CBO: Doc fix will cost more than anyone thought
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2507388/posts
Obama-Nomics & Greece [latest updates]
Bailout Bubble — a trillion for Greece? The Euro Bailout is doomed to fail
http://investigatingobama.blogspot.com/2010/05/beware-be-ready-big-crash-appears.html
Gold hits all-time high [very bad sign — we conservatives saw it coming years ago]
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c43cc5fc-5d2b-11df-8373-00144feab49a.html
‘We are once again the schmucks of Europe!’ German media’s verdict as anger at Greek bailout swells...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1277393/We-schmucks-Europe-German-medias-verdict-anger-Greek-bailout-swells.html
CNBC’s Rick Santelli Rips Key Democrat For Ignoring FANNIE/FREDDIE Reform...
http://gopleader.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=184989
ONE LAST PUSH BEFORE FALL: Dems poised to move measures with high price tags...
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/97089-democrats-poised-to-move-measures-with-high-price-tags
Obama wants federal agencies to hit the gas on hiring
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2510953/posts
Greece and GM: Too weak to fail [George Will]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2512503/posts
Obama-nomics & Greece Update
Obama pushing $23 billion teachers union bailout
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2513627/posts
Top of Drudge:
Greece May Take Legal Steps Against U.S. Banks for Crisis...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aDxF1YfeViEc
Euro Breakup Concerns Grow...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqquuYOAN_sE
Germans lose faith...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7127621.ece
Merkel: Rescue package ‘just buys time’...
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.cdc149211d17e9292605abc47c6a574f.721&show_article=1
Palin on the Warpath
AZ governor, Palin criticize Holder for not reading law...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/16/az_governor_palin_criticize_ag_eric_holder_for_not_reading_law.html
Palin will try to help quiet furor on SB 1070 [AZ Immigration]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2514263/posts
“Most recently, Palin encouraged an Illinois girls’ basketball team to “go rogue” after an administrator canceled its trip to Arizona.”
Palin takes aim at Dem women
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2514259/posts
[Thinking of Annie Oakly] “I kinda feel a connection to that tough, gun totin’ pioneer feminism,” she told the enthusiastic crowd of anti-abortion activists gathered to support the SBA List.
“For far too long, when people heard the word feminist, they thought of the faculty lounge at some East Coast woman’s college,” she said. “And no offense to them, they have their opinions and their voice and God bless ‘em, that’s great, but that’s not the only voice of women in America.”
[Housing] Dropouts rise in gov’t loan modification program
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2515688/posts
Don Fredrick of The Obama Timeline & Judd Bagley on Naked Short Selling - Manuf. Crisis on Wall St.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2515542/posts
Assurances About GM/UAW Don’t Wash
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2515523/posts
Wall Street Killionaires are at it again
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=155185
Floyd Brown and Lee Troxler warn of speculators who ‘looted’ investors
Greece considers lawsuit against speculators
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=155229
Book exposes technique thought to have sparked economic plunge
Andrew Maguire: ‘Serious manipulation’ of gold, silver markets [WND’s Jerome Corsi]
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=153953
A London-based commodities trader claims a major New York bank is conducting serious manipulation of the silver and gold futures markets.
Three Greece Headlines [on Drudge]
France: ‘Let us not deceive ourselves’...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE64G16U20100517
White House: ‘serious concerns’...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100517/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_iran
Britain, Germany skeptical...
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100517/D9FON9G01.html
Broken Window Fallacy
French economist Frederic Bastiat
That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen
by Frederic Bastiat, 1850
http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html#broken_window
In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause - it is seen. The others unfold in succession - they are not seen: it is well for us, if they are foreseen. [snip] Hence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good, which will be followed by a great evil to come, while the true economist pursues a great good to come, - at the risk of a small present evil. [snip]
I. THE BROKEN WINDOW
[My words outside of brief quotes]
A brat breaks a window, and some economists might think, “Great. It creates work for the glazer.” So the glazer puts in a new window and earns six francs. “Stop there! your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen.” ... “It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another.”
So there you go. True progess comes from a NET gain in humanity’s property. Progress is set back when property is lost, when labor is wasted, and when dreams are shattered like a broken window. Even the brat — he’s out breaking windows rather than learning a useful trade. The glazer is just restoring what was lost. The man buying the window needs to cut his budget and postpone genuine progress. Other people would have earned that six francs that would have advanced humanity’s net property.
Looking deeper: a misanthrope is glad to reduce humanity’s net property. A person who hates his fellow man hopes to manipulate others into stagnation and setbacks out of some selfish desire. He attempts to talk useful idiots into buying his contorted theories.
Weird and Wonderful US History
“In 1923, the United States produced 49% of all products worldwide. 6 In the years between 1919 and 1927, the American economy grew ten times as fast as in the years of 1900-1919. 7”
[Twenty years dominated by Teddy and Woodrow Wilson — 1900-1919. Even sharper than that — a depression that spilled into 1921. 1919 and 1927 ... sharper than that ... the Harding Recovery from 1921 policy / Roaring Twenties, leaping out from a depression through tax cuts AND spending cuts! It would be interesting to compare Teddy’s Panic of 1907 on through to Wilson’s depression into 1921 with Harding’s 1922 - 1927]
It is no wonder that this economic success attracted attention from other nations. The German public, dominated by middle class and intellectuals, never tired of praising the American accomplishments in economic issues. Even those from a socialist background, such as the Social Democrats and unionists saw the United States as a model for future German development. The US capitalist system seemed to create a population without the polarization into extreme left and right wings that was present throughout the whole Weimar Republic. Not only did it provide a solution for economical problems, but it also solved political problems. 8
The American economy was highly impressive to the Germans of the time. American practices which were believed to improve the economy streamed into Europe. The US was seen as a land of rationalisation and pragmatism. Two concepts were applied, Taylorism and Fordism.
Another expression for Taylorism is “scientific management”. Frederik Taylor, an engineer in the “Midvale Steel Company”, invented this kind of management even before the First World War. The kernel of his program was the division of labour in hundreds or thousands of exactly calculated small steps. This rationalisation was made possible by a scientification of management and production. The elimination of all useless steps led to an increase in production by forty times. 9
Fordism was invented by Henry C. Ford. His use of the assembly line in the production of his famous “Model T” car made it possible for him to produce fast and cheap automobiles in high numbers. This is the basis for mass consumption. Division of labour was also part of his philosophy. The “Model T” was produced in 7882 small steps.10 Labour became stricter and was determined by stop-watch and assembly line. [snip]
Fordism especially was warmly welcomed in Germany and found a supportive audience in the general public. It also spurred a big backdraft of secondary literature, examining and analysing Henry Ford’s writings, whose autobiography was soon to become Germany’s economic bible. 11 [snip]
http://www.nomediakings.org/malte/ha/ha_weiku.htm
5 Detlef Junker, “Die Aussenpolitik der USA 1920-1940”, in: Otmar Franz ed., Am Wendepunkt der europaeischen Geschichte (Goettingen, 1981), p. 202.
6 Hermand, p. 49.
7Ibid., p. 52.
8 Ibid., p. 49.
9 Ibid., p. 51.
10 Ibid., p. 52.
11 Mary Nolan, Visions of Modernity: American Business and Modernization of Germany (Oxford, 1994), pp. 30ff.
[And note that we were in a depression in 1920. The Harding Recovery.]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.