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Does Stimulus Stimulate?
forbes ^ | Bruce Bartlett

Posted on 01/25/2009 9:09:08 AM PST by genghis

Notations Does Stimulus Stimulate? Bruce Bartlett, 01.23.09, 12:01 AM EST The role of government in economic recovery. In a few weeks, Congress will likely enact the largest fiscal stimulus legislation in history. Surprisingly, the whole idea of such a stimulus is much more controversial among A-list economists than I would have expected, given the depth and breadth of the economic malaise. Although the debate is rather technical, it's important to try to understand it because much is at stake. Eighty years ago, the conventional view among economists was that government had nothing to do with business cycles--it neither caused them nor was there anything it could do about them. They were like the weather; you just coped the best you could. Article Controls email print reprint newsletter comments (12) share del.icio.us Digg It! yahoo Facebook rss Yahoo! BuzzEventually, economists came to understand that vast numbers of individuals and businesses throughout the economy don't make exactly the same mistakes simultaneously unless something has changed the rules of the game. Government isn't always responsible--bubbles can occur on their own, as they have over the centuries--but systemic errors usually result from government policy.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antistimulus; schifflist
A nice discuss of mistakes fdr made, that libs haven't figured out.
1 posted on 01/25/2009 9:09:08 AM PST by genghis
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To: genghis

It stimulated mty savings acct. we do not live beyond our means Like alot of Americans and the govermenrt is the worst offenders


2 posted on 01/25/2009 9:14:33 AM PST by al baby (Hi mom. I love sarcasim)
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To: genghis

I have a ton of Dems that I know swearing that ALL economists agree that gov’t spending helps recovery from recessions. It’s as if the world begins and ends with Keynes.


3 posted on 01/25/2009 9:20:13 AM PST by Bogey78O (Don't call them jihadis. Call them irhabis. Tick them off, don't entertain their delusion.)
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To: genghis
Article Controls email print reprint newsletter comments (12) share del.icio.us Digg It! yahoo Facebook rss Yahoo!

The author lost me with this.

4 posted on 01/25/2009 9:32:53 AM PST by Rudder (The Main Stream Media is Our Enemy---get used to it.)
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To: Rudder

sorry my mistake.
It won’t happen again.


5 posted on 01/25/2009 9:41:53 AM PST by genghis
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To: Bogey78O

Those same Dems also would have you believe there is a consensus amongst scientists about ‘global warming’. It is part of the shout down any opposition to their beliefs and denigrate anyone so bold as to question their ‘wisdom;.


6 posted on 01/25/2009 9:43:18 AM PST by milwguy (........)
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To: Bogey78O

The other night I was amazed at a comment I heard from one person being interviewed by a local news channel. The individual stated they were hopeful that the government would spend enough to get us out of this recession.

This last election our county voted for every spending measure on the ballot, except one.

I hope when we get through all this we will take a hard look at the ridiculous education standards which I feel are at the root of a majority of the problems we are facing right now.


7 posted on 01/25/2009 9:45:16 AM PST by xander
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To: genghis

i may be wrong, but didn’t bartlett decide to support obama in election?


8 posted on 01/25/2009 9:51:14 AM PST by gussiefinknottle (woof!woof!woof!)
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To: PAR35; TigerLikesRooster; bamahead; AndyJackson; Thane_Banquo; nicksaunt; MadLibDisease; ...
The Peter Schiff/Redistribution Watch Ping . (Washington Spending your past, present and future money!)

Here's a sample from above article :” No one today believes that the Great Depression just happened or dragged on as long as it did because the private sector kept making mistake after mistake after mistake. It only made them and continued to do so because government interfered with the normal operations of the market and prevented readjustment from taking place .”

The Great Depression resulted from a confluence of governmental errors—the Fed was too easy for too long in the 1920s, tightened too much in 1928-29 and then failed to fix its mistake, thus bringing on a general deflation that was very difficult to arrest once downward momentum had set in. Herbert Hoover compounded the problem by signing into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff and sharply raising taxes in 1932.

Unfortunately, Franklin D. Roosevelt misunderstood the nature of the economy's problem and tried to fix prices to keep them from falling—thus preventing the very readjustment that would have brought about recovery. (See this paper by UCLA economists Harold Cole and Lee Ohanian.) He doesn't seem to have ever understood the critical role of Fed policy and mistakenly thought that arbitrarily raising the price of gold would make money easier .” ENTIRE ARTICLE AT (TO SAVE YOU A SCROLL):

Does Stimulus Stimulate?

9 posted on 01/25/2009 10:06:10 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : " We need swift immediate action on my 10 year government spending plan")
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To: genghis
The Peter Schiff/Redistribution Watch Ping List. (Washington Spending your past, present and future money!)

Recent Schiff:"Everytime government planning has been tried,all it's done is made things worse. It didn't work in communist China, it didnt work in the Soviet Union. Barack Obama is no smarter than Khrushchev or Mao. He may think he's smarter than everyone else..."

Please tag all relevant threads with the keyword : schifflist

Ping list pinged by sickoflibs.

To join the ping list: FReepmail sickoflibs with the subject line add Schifflist.

(Stop getting pings by sending the subject line drop Schifflist.)

10 posted on 01/25/2009 10:11:39 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : " We need swift immediate action on my 10 year government spending plan")
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To: sickoflibs

no.

let the corps and businesses that fail

crash and burn.

then start over.


11 posted on 01/25/2009 10:19:41 AM PST by ken21
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To: genghis

What Obama does not have is a plan B. What will he do if spending a trillion dollars does not jump start the economy? Where will we go if after spending a trillion dollars the economy collapses because we cannot afford the interest on the debt, our dollar is nearly worthless and taxes have bled those who pay them white? Will Obama be like Robert Mugabe and just keep printing money and confiscating private property turning the US into Zimbabwe?


12 posted on 01/25/2009 10:27:43 AM PST by The Great RJ ("Mir we bleiwen wat mir sin" or "We want to remain what we are." ..Luxembourg motto)
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To: Bogey78O; genghis
I have a ton of Dems that I know swearing that ALL economists agree that gov’t spending helps recovery from recessions.

Ask them why the unemployment rates declined so much quicker in Canada and Britain in the 1930's.

13 posted on 01/25/2009 10:33:31 AM PST by wmfights (If you want change support SenateConservatives.com)
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To: al baby

It is not a stimulus paclage ,IT IS REPARATIONS!!!


14 posted on 01/25/2009 10:49:17 AM PST by ballplayer
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To: ballplayer

If I’m not getting at least 10K its just going to stimulate my savings account.


15 posted on 01/25/2009 10:50:59 AM PST by Edizzl79 (you want my guns..come and get em...I dare ya....)
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To: genghis

***Does Stimulus Stimulate?***

No.


16 posted on 01/25/2009 10:53:56 AM PST by djsherin (The federal government:: Because someone has to f*** things up!)
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To: ken21

“let the corps and businesses that fail

crash and burn.”

The corporations and businesses that fail will not crash and burn. Their assets will be taken over by others who will attempt to make a more productive use of them.

No one has yet explained to me what exactly it is that Goldman Sachs, Citibank and these other Wall Street giants “produce” which makes them so critical to save from destruction by the free market.


17 posted on 01/25/2009 3:10:21 PM PST by SecAmndmt (Arm yourselves!)
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To: djsherin

“No.”

Well, it does stimulate deficits, debt, destruction of small business, destruction of the US dollar, bankruptcy of American families, and prolonged economic malaise.

But then again, one can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs!


18 posted on 01/25/2009 3:14:12 PM PST by SecAmndmt (Arm yourselves!)
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