As long as the emergency lasts long enuff to get obamalamadingdong re-elected, no problem.
Leave it to a clear thinker to make the perfect analogy: “Using long, drawn-out processes to put money into circulation to meet an emergency is like mailing a letter to the fire department to tell them that your house is on fire.”
As is usually the case, Dr. Sowell nails it. He’s the best.
The Raw Deal.
Bump for morning coffee. Good night! :
Quite a return on 750 million dollars of other peoples money spent to buy the presidency.
Who will buy the next one?
Why is our government so backasswards?
Who knows what bright ideas this administration will turn into permanent institutions for our children and grandchildren to try to cope with?
Sowell's right - this could get a lot worse - a whole lot worse...
It is frustrating to know what the now powers that be are doing and the probable result, but not being able to do much about it. Last election’s October surprise should be recognized as the greatest/worst in our history and socialism’s greatest win.
They should just give ME all the money and I promise to get it circulating right away.
Everyone is talking about how much money the government is spending, but very little attention is being paid to where they are spending it or what they are buying with it.
...Using long, drawn-out processes to put money into circulation to meet an emergency is like mailing a letter to the fire department to tell them that your house is on fire.
If you cut taxes tomorrow, people would have more money in their next paycheck, and it would probably be spent by the time they got that paycheck, through increased credit card purchases beforehand.
If all this sound and fury in Washington was about getting an economic crisis behind us, tax cuts could do that a lot faster.
None of this is rocket science. And Washington politicians are not all crazy, even if sometimes it looks that way. Often, what they say makes no sense because what they claim to be doing is not what they are actually doing.
... If the Beltway politicians aren't really trying to solve this crisis as quickly as they could, what are they trying to do?
One important clue may be a recent statement by President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, that "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."
This is the kind of cynical revelation that sometimes slips out, despite all the political pieties and spin. Crises have long been seen as great opportunities to expand the federal government's power while the people are too scared to object and before any opposition can get organized.
That is why there is such haste to do things that will take effect slowly.
What are the Beltway politicians buying with all the hundreds of billions of dollars they are spending? They are buying what politicians are most interested in -- power.
... This administration and Congress are now in a position to do what Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression of the 1930s-- use a crisis of the times to create new institutions that will last for generations.
Nailed It!
Moral Clarity BUMP !
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The brilliant Mr. Sowell has an excellent point. Here is the conclusion that I have drawn:
The delayed impact of this stimulus will be just one more arrow in Ozero’s re-election quiver: “but I haven’t had time to effect CHANGE!”
Of course this assumes that the states will be able to get election fraud under control—all politics is local, folks!
later
These are things I’ve been trying to get across to the GOP but they either aren’t listening or are playing ball with the lobbyists who are throwing money at the DNC.
The government is on a path to tremendous debt, deficits, devaluation of the dollar and NO ASSURANCE of any relief or stimulus.
On the other hand, the government could
1) subsidize (backstop) a new ultra-low home finance program, e.g. lend to banks at 2.25% who will in turn lend to qualified homeowners at 3% fixed for 30 years. This would spur home buying, put money in homeowners pockets that they would save and spend. Everyone would get their home loans cut significantly and this would cost nothing, cause no debt, and definitely help the economy.
2) cut payroll taxes
3) cut income taxes
2 & 3 would cause some debt and deficits but that is needed to help small businesses and employees. Even if we took a 1 year tax holiday it would be almost the same as adding another $1 trillion in new debt and would definitely help the people.
The idea that the way to save the economy is via the government deciding when and where to spend money is simply ludicrous. If we are going to do radical things here is a radical idea - INVEST IN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
The root of this problem is in housing, so in housing (imho) is the first step out. Get people back into homes with a program that backstops loans. This way even if someone loses a home, there will always be someone else who can qualify because the rates will always be fixed.
Anyway my two cents. I agree with Sowell too. But its too late to go backwards so we need to find free market “style” solutions.
The seeds of this disaster were planted by former president Bush with his absurd rebate checks and his adoption of the stimulus-jump start-cocaine metaphor for the economy. Then he watered the plant by, in his words, chucking his free market principles, in a pathetic attempt to buy time so the crisis wouldn't hit with full force on his watch.
First Newt and Kasich threw away Reaganomics for phony balanced budgets. Then Bush threw away phony balanced budgets for phony "stimulus" spending. We're all pseudo-Keynesians now.
ZING!