Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

George Melloan: Hillary and Say's Law
The Wall Street Journal ^ | January 23, 2008 | GEORGE MELLOAN

Posted on 01/23/2008 2:30:37 AM PST by Aristotelian

"But this stimulus shouldn't be paid for," Hillary Clinton said to Tim Russert in a recent interview, when he reminded her that she'd omitted a price tag somewhere. Shouldn't be?

Say hello to that old ghost from the past we thought banished by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. It's called "Keynesian Economics."

Ironically, even the brilliant John Maynard Keynes disowned it. After meeting with a group of Washington "Keynesians" in 1944, he said he was the only non-Keynesian in the room. His brainchild, government spending to stimulate demand, had been converted from its originally intended limited application to an all-purpose economic panacea by politicians, academics and journalists.

The fundamental principle of the Keynesians, one that Lord Keynes would have scoffed at, is that government can deliver something for nothing.

(snip)

Some Democrats still think that government stimulation of demand is an antidote to a slowing economy. Yet economics has certain iron laws that the government violates at its peril. One of them has been called Say's Law, because it was first enunciated by the late 18th-century Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Say. He said "products are paid for with products." Or to rephrase the point, "a society can't consume if it doesn't produce."

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS:
For those interested, I'd encourage you to read "Letters to Thomas Robert Malthus on Political Economy and Stagnation of Commerce by Jean Baptiste Say, London, 1821" at http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/say/letter.html

Say's Law is at the very heart of supply-side economics. As Say says in a nutshell: "I had said -- As no one can purchase the produce of another except with his own produce, as the amount for which we can buy is equal to that which we can produce, the.more we can produce the more we can purchase. From whence proceeds this other conclusion, which you refuse to admit -- That if certain commodities do not sell, it is because others are not produced, and that it is the raising produce alone which opens a market for the sale of produce."

1 posted on 01/23/2008 2:30:38 AM PST by Aristotelian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Aristotelian

I liked Ayn Rand better:

“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

“Francisco’s Money Speech”
by Ayn Rand


2 posted on 01/23/2008 2:44:31 AM PST by EBH (Loose lips sink ships.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Aristotelian
What I want to know is if they have all this money to "give back" then why are they taking it in the first place?

Oh, let me guess...so the political n'er-do-wells in our society can wallow like pigs in mud.

3 posted on 01/23/2008 2:59:38 AM PST by The Duke (I have met the enemy, and he is named 'Apathy'!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EBH

Hillary Clinton hasn’t produced a thing in her life, how the heck would she know?


4 posted on 01/23/2008 3:30:35 AM PST by Shady (The Fairness Doctrine is ANYTHING but fair!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: EBH

NICE POST EBH...im a big ayn rand disciple as well....

but say arent her truisms taught in every college and university through out the UNITED STATES ?

I GUESS NOT.....


5 posted on 01/23/2008 3:32:43 AM PST by flat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: The Duke

What I want to know is if they have all this money to “give back” then why are they taking it in the first place?

Oh, let me guess...so the political n’er-do-wells in our society can wallow like pigs in mud.

AND THE CHiLLUNS duke....the chilluns...let us not forget the
chilluns


6 posted on 01/23/2008 3:35:21 AM PST by flat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Aristotelian

Let’s print a lot of money no one will have to “pay for” and regulate the economy to make it more efficient. That always works. /sarcasm


7 posted on 01/23/2008 3:35:59 AM PST by Wilhelm Tell (True or False? This is not a tag line.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: flat

These are the things we need to have in our back pocket about Hillary. She just added on more to the ever growing list and depths of her socialist dream.


8 posted on 01/23/2008 3:53:22 AM PST by EBH (Loose lips sink ships.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: EBH

“I have a million ideas. The country can’t afford them all.” Hillary Clinton


9 posted on 01/23/2008 4:34:58 AM PST by Aristotelian ("The devil made me do it." Flip Wilson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson