That means that Obama will have to come down off his campaign rhetoric and do what’s right. Thomas Jefferson did.
Hmmm...I don’t like this tone from Ben Stein...he is usually fairly well balanced, I think...
Yikes...
This is just plain stupid. Never ending. Please. Even the depression had an ending. This will be over in two to three years.
These things are cyclical. Always have been. Instead of lamentations of the winter of our discontent, they should thoughtfully analyze how we got into this shape and how to get out of it. Newspapers used to do journalism a long long time ago.
Every time I see Ben Stein on tv, radio or in print, he seems to be getting more and more, Morose to downright depressed.
I dunno!!
With your employers stock price slide of 65%+ in the last year I can see why you think that.
I’d like to read this article but Bugmenot is doing nothing for me this time. Wonder what’s wrong.
All the bailouts in the world aren't going to return the economy (neither global nor local) to what it once was, unless the anti-capitalistic regulations are removed.
You may have noticed, that not only has there been no move to undo the CRA, CAFE, nor any of the other cute acronyms, but the Dems in Congress continue to deny any responsibility for the economy's collapse.
Things COULD get better. But the future doesn't look very rosy at the moment.
~~Harvard Economic Society, October 19, 1929
"Business will turn for the better this month or next, recovering vigorously in the third quarter and end the year substantially above normal."
~~Harvard Economic Society, May 17, 1930
"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."
-~~Ludwig Von Mises
“Several brokerage houses tumbled; blue-sky investment companies formed during the happy bull market days went to smash, disclosing miserable tales of rascality; over a thousand banks caved in during 1930, as a result of marking down both of real estate and of securities; and in December occurred the largest bank failure in American financial history, the fall of the ill-named Bank of the United States in New York.”
~~"Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920’s" by Fredrick Lewis Allen
Everybody has enough cars TV’s Ipods to last the decade . Not much you can do about that ;-)) Build a better car TV or Ipod ??
Ben Stein is a tool, Peter Schiff owns him, and others in this video is from 2006/2007, notice the crap Stein spews in response, I loooove where he says Merrill Lynch is a bargain and AND ASTONISHING WELL RUN COMPANY, look at the prices the people were saying WERE BARGAINS for the financials
I just lost all respect for Ben Stein.
This was John Maynard Keynes’s great contribution to economic understanding, and it’s a big one.
The money quote. Keynes's solution was tried by FDR. It did not work. World war did. Scary.
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We cannot nickel-and-dime our way out of this.
The nasty problem is that we can't dollar our way out either. Years of credit have created a black hole that will devour every bit of "wealth" the govt prints.
Saving the automakers is a step out of the darkness. Or, I might say, allowing them to die is a step toward a terrifying dusk.
I think he's got it backwards. Bailing out Detroit without savage give-backs will ensure that that darkness rivals that of the Biblical "valley of the shadow of . . ."
For starters, the difference is that this is a global recession, not an internal one, and people are in debt up to their ears, not flush with cash or have room to borrow more. It's a train wreck that stretches around the world.
"Now don't you worry, Mrs. Simpson. This is the most blatant case of false advertising I've seen since my class-action lawsuit against 'The Neverending Story.'"
I don't agree with all Ben said in this article (particularly in the case of the Big 3 automakers), but I do agree with his general premise that there is enough fear in the market, worldwide, to lead to a very, very long and deep depression.
One maxim I think is true is that you cannot stimulate confidence. IOW, once a certain level of shock and fear is internalized, almost any amount of direct stimulus the government can accomplish is *felt* as nickle-and-diming.
To have gas prices drop to $1.50, or to get a check for $2,000 from the gubmint, just isn't going to take away the shock of seeing one's 401(k) lose 30, 40 or 50% of its value in a matter of weeks---and knowing darn well that it could take DECADES to get that back, if ever.
Moreover, this maybe-depression is very different from anything in the past because it encompasses very large moral hazards. At every turn of government intervention, there is the problem that the "fix" is rewarding the gamblers and deadbeats and those who played by the rules are getting slapped in the face.
If the "fix" undermines the market morality (e.g., that those who play by the rules generally win) by providing windfalls to those who gambled or punted, there will come a time when good and decent people will have no choice but to conclude that doing the "right thing" is no longer doing the "wise or financially survivable thing."
If that point is reached, we have a fundamental change that will be forever.
All that said, one of the approaches that might work, and might be amenable to schemes that don't reward the deadbeats, is MASSIVE TAX RELIEF for those who play by the rules.
For example, instead of mortgage bailouts to deadbeats, how about doubling or tripling the mortgage interest deduction for those paying their mortgage and living in their home?
How about a credit for credit card interest for those who are current on their bill for the entire tax year? That would reward the people who don't default and encourage spending.
How about loan modification for those who are current---to make monthly payments easier without the lender losing a dime, e.g., reamortization over 40 years?
How about stop giving a hiring preference to those on welfare and let people who were supporting themselves compete fairly for what jobs there are in this economy?
How about increasing the deduction for dependents for people who actually pay income taxes?
These are some examples of ways the government could "spend" money and give it to the people who can, by their good choices, keep this country afloat.