Posted on 05/18/2009 6:46:26 AM PDT by reaganaut1
...
Longer-term, there is little doubt that we will be paying more for energy. On Wednesday Democrats in the House agreed on a cap-and-trade system that will put a price on CO2 emissions, a cost that will be passed on to consumers in the prices of electricity and other energy sources. Agreement was reached when the bill's enthusiasts bribed recalcitrant congressmen with free pollution permits for important constituents in the utility, oil and other industries. Which is too bad: cap-and-trade is a woefully inefficient way of imposing emissions costs on polluters. Experience in Europe shows that the price of permits fluctuates so wildly that potential producers of renewable energy aren't given a target against which to compete. A solar or wind installation that might make economic sense when users of coal have to pay $40 per ton for a permit, is uncompetitive when the price drops to $10, as it has done.
Energy costs will also be driven up indirectly, in a way concealed from consumers. We will pay higher taxes to cover the costs of the subsidies being lavished on solar, wind, ethanol and other parts of the energy economy by environmentalists. Or, in the case of ethanol, by politicians who equate ethanol with corn, corn with Iowa, and Iowa with the first presidential primary in 2012. Throw in the costs of a "smart grid" and all of us, especially those who have been stockpiling incandescent electric bulbs so as not to be dependent on the dangerous, malfunctioning and costly energy-saving fluorescents when the US outlaws incandescent bulbs in 2014, will pay more.
We will also end up paying more to borrow than we would have paid before the government decided that contracts are made to be broken.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Why do Democrats hate Americans so much?
Why do Democrats hate THEMSELVES so much?
Probably both..taxes and inflation. They will be handmaiden’s of destruction. The survivors will be govt employees who’s retirement will be indexed and raises will be fast and frequent.
BOTH
BOTH
Bribed...Bribed....Bribed...they know the bill is BAAAAD but a little BRIBE or hush money overcomes their ethics or lack thereof. We are getting the government we are willing to accept.
BOTH?
BOTH!
I think I’d rather see the inflation. You can’t make inflation progressive or selective - it hits everybody the same so they can’t pick and choose who’s going to have to pay it.
Most Conservatives anticipated this during the ‘election’. Now that it is being borne out ... in actual irrefutable fact, why is the rapacious and arbitrary spoliation of US taxpayers disturbing? You ARE getting what you asked for!
“The Cost of Obamanomics: Higher taxes or hyperinflation”
Hey, why not both? What a smashing idea!
I made this argument in December and got attacked by waves of deflation hawks
Yeah! I’m betting on both.
it WILL be both
And it will be fast, the whole economy will be on crack cocaine and then there will be a HUGE hangover. And just like crack, the only ones to benefit will be the pushers.
The average man will get the bill and the hangover
Let alone the massive bleeding of capital to foreign nations that Americans will have to pay for. And the G& wil get wrapped up as will the bulk of the world. At the end of the day, America will still be the dog that wags the tail
I expect both, and I'm hoping it's severe enough to stop the rest of Obama's agenda. We can recover from another Great Depression, but we can't recover from the gutting of our Constitution and of our underlying economic system that Obama has planned for the next four years. Anything that weakens our economy enough to slow him down is a good thing.
?????Minyanville Professor Scott Reeves is explaining How Democrats Failed to Learn From FDR’s New Deal.
Franklin Delanor Roosevelt is popularly regarded as the man who saved democratic capitalism with vigorous governmental intervention. But a distinction must be drawn between FDR the brilliant politician who prepared the nation for World War II and kept Britain afloat after the defeat of France, and FDR the economic illiterate.
In the 1930s, the conventional wisdom was that capitalism had failed. FDR apparently never challenged that assumption. But the failure of government – not the free market – created the Great Depression. The economic collapse could have been avoided.
In many cases, FDR’s policies deepened the depression and created needless hardship for those he sought to help.
Here’s how:
Tax Hikes
FDR nearly tripled the tax burden between 1933 and 1940, boosting excise, income, inheritance, corporate, and dividend taxes and slapping a tax on “excess profits.” The highest individual tax rate soared to 79%. High taxes sucked money out of the private sector, smothered entrepreneurship and killed incentives to work and invest. By contrast, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon helped spark an economic boom in the 1920s by backing a plan to slash the top individual tax rate to 25% from 73%.
High Employment Costs
The New Deal raised the cost of employment, making it expensive to hire new workers and contributing to the nation’s high unemployment rate. The National Industrial Recovery Act and the Davis-Bacon Act mandated artificially high wages, further crimping private employment. The new minimum wage cut demand for unskilled workers. The new Social Security tax raised compensation costs. Compulsory union membership often fostered violent tactics – and the goal wasn’t increased efficiency or innovative products to grab market share. The WPA and other government agencies “created” jobs, but at great cost – private sector employment was lower in 1940 than it was in 1929.
Brutalizing Business
FDR railed against “economic royalists” and “privileged princes” who sought to establish an “industrial dictatorship” and a “new despotism.” Roosevelt issued about 3,700 executive orders, many limiting business activity, and let lose a plague of anti-trust lawyers on American industry. New securities laws made it difficult to raise capital.
??????
http://mises.org/journals/scholar/Thornton1.PDF
I read this paper on a little known fact from The GD the other day. During the GD there was a pretty successful tax revolt. I guess what I took away with me the obvious on this one, You tax people to the breaking point and they break, the tax system blows apart and you end up at a better tax rate. OBAMA FAILS in two years give or take and taxes normalize somewhat. As somebody said “history does not repeat it rhymes”
We will recover from this and Obama, might take 10 years with a couple of really bad years in the next 5 but we will get through it.
It will be Laffer’s Revenge. As taxes go up, economic activity goes down, and so do revenues. The government prints money to make up the difference, and hyperinflation is the inevitable result.
btt
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