Victor Davis Hanson: Dr. Obama: First, Do No Harm. Let nature do its work

NRO ^ | March 19, 2009 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Tolik]

When it comes to our complex economy, Pres. Barack Obama would do well to heed the physician’s ancient commandment to first “do no harm.”

Instead, Obama’s administration has been prescribing all sorts of multibillion-dollar borrowing remedies without any consistent diagnosis of what is exactly wrong with the weak economy or even how bad things actually are.

Since becoming president, Obama has offered numerous bleak economic prognoses. He has told Americans: “The situation we face could not be more serious. We have inherited an economic crisis as deep and as dire as any since the Great Depression.” He has also warned, “Recovery will likely be measured in years, not weeks or months,” and “If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years.”

But suddenly last week, physician Obama flipped and issued an entirely new prognosis: “I don’t think things are ever as good as they say, or ever as bad as they say.” He added. “(Things) are not as bad as we think they are now.”

What happened to living through hard times akin to the Great Depression?

Maybe it was the unexpected news that Citibank and Bank of America are starting to show a profit — thanks to the past bailouts of 2008 and new profitable loans. Maybe it was General Motors’s recent decision not to (for now) ask for more federal cash. Maybe it was the reports that consumer spending is not down as much as feared.

Or did Obama’s change in rhetoric reflect a sort of premeditated strategy: Talk down the economy to scare everyone into supporting more government spending and borrowing; then, once the stimulus bill has passed, talk up the economy to reassure us that it will work?

Or, as seems more likely, does the new government simply not know what is going on — much less what to do about it?

It can’t seem to fill slots at the Treasury Department, and strangely talks about fiscal responsibility and the evils of pork-barrel spending while expanding upon the Bush budget deficit and approving more than 8,000 earmarks.

Obama — and Congress — should take a deep breath before further expanding the budget with ever more stimulus spending, borrowing, and aggregate debt that will plague our children, who will have to pay back the trillions long after this present recession ends.

It’s time to let natural market forces work us through the current downturn. The reason why the stock market inched up a bit, and companies reported something other than the usual losses, is that we may already be in a stimulatory climate. When George Bush left office, his last budget projected a $500 billion shortfall — quite a lot of borrowing to spend on ourselves.

Billions of dollars are also stimulating the economy through reduced energy costs. Once the price of oil fell from a high of $147 a barrel last July to between $40 and $50 a barrel at present, American families began saving hundreds of dollars in reduced gasoline and home-energy costs. Savings in energy also reverberate throughout the economy and make everything from food to building materials cheaper. That, too, has been a sizable stimulus.

This month, the indebted U.S. government paid its creditors less than half a percentage point in interest on six-month Treasury notes, which is below the rate of inflation. In other words, we are financing much of our new spending spree with near-free use of someone else’s money.

Billions of cheap dollars on loans entering the U.S. eventually translate into lower mortgages and car loans; at present, banks are paying little money in interest to cash depositors while collecting 4 to 6 percent in mortgage interest from borrowers. With a spread like that, no wonder banks are starting to show a profit again.

Finally, millions of cash-strapped families freed themselves from debt by walking away from mortgage and credit-card loans, and are restarting with less financial burdens. And even most of those who lost home equity and saw the crash of their retirement portfolios are still working. Most from this latter group are still earning income, not cashing in their fallen 401(k)s, and not selling their homes at a loss.

It is clear from the last two months that no one in this herky-jerky administration quite knows what is going on in the economy, which has its own self-correcting mechanisms that were already in play without vast new federal spending and borrowing.

So before we give more toxic-debt medicine to the recovering patient, let us take a timeout from the massive borrowing, let nature do its work — and at least do no more harm to generations not yet born.

[Tolik]

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[screaminsunshine]

Doc. The government is infected with the PC virus. Worse than HIV. All of them have tested as PC positive. Is there any hope or is it fatal?

[Tolik]

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTRhZGQ2NTljN2I3ZDU4MTY0YTk4YTUyN2FjODQzODY=

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

And Then They Came for Me?   [Victor Davis Hanson]

What are progressives thinking when they hear of these trial balloons from the Democratically-controlled congress and administration about taxing health-care benefits, making veterans first draw on their own health-care plans for postbellum injuries or stresses, and, now, regulating farmers' markets in a way that would increase costs and turn them into, well, a sort of Saturday morning DMV experience?

I think we can expect some very illiberal ideas coming forth from now on for two good reasons.

One, there simply are not enough rich around to squeeze to pay off a $1.7 annual deficit that is fueling a $11 trillion national debt that is growing hourly, and so the voracious federal timberwolf is coming down from the estates of the rich still hungry, and looking for prey anywhere he can find it; and, two, when two liberal creeds collide — like big government and always-growing federal-subsidized bureaucracies versus the little-guy family farmer trying to make a buck outside of the corporate agricultural nexus — the richer and more powerful always win.

03/18 12:11 PM

[whitedog57]

Good analogy. It is fatal.

Obama and his trolls want the US to be the Soviet Union or China. They LOVE Communism (with the exception of a small monied ruling class which they need). Free market? They want to control it all. Healthcare? They want to decide who gets it and how much.

These people DO NOT believe in personal liberties. They believe in a collective where any sins against one part of the collective must be addressed and corrected.

Hence, all future earnings must go to African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, oppressed women, gays.

These people actually believe this “one world” nonsense. The post-American world dominated by crazy Muslims, crazy Socialists, crazy Hindus, third world hellholes that condone murder and violence against women, yet our intellectual elites want to subject all children to a lifetime of beatings and rape.

I nominate the Obama girls and Chelsea Clinton to live in Dubai without protection for one year. Let’s see how THEY like it.

[screaminsunshine]

Wow. The BORG in the Star Trek tv show comes to mind. They want to live in a giant “hive” every thought and action controlled by a central queen. Obama the Borg queen. Do not let them “assimilate” you.

[EnigmaticAnomaly]

"I nominate the Obama girls and Chelsea Clinton to live in Dubai without protection for one year. Let’s see how THEY like it."

Actually, you might be disappointed at the results. Dubai is very American friendly.

[nctexan]

Obama's efforts with the economy reminds me of Doctor Benjamin Rush... bleeding his patients whom often would have quickly healed on their own... to the point that he hastened their demise.

The big difference however, is that Dr. Rush was using the best knowledge that he had at the time and was truly intending to work in his patients' best interest.

However, Barry himself needs to some of Dr. Rush's medicine because he's so "full of it".

"Chief among the medicines were Dr. Rush's patented pills (also known as 'Thunderclappers'). The pills were concocted by him as a means of purging the system. The pills were composed of calomel (a mixture of six parts mercury to one part chlorine), and jalap (jalapeno is a form of jalap). Each portion of the concoction was a purgative of explosive power...the combination was awesome." Dr. Rush suggested that if one pill didn't do the trick, you could take two or three."

[GBA]

I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us.

[maica]

It is a shame that Benjamin Rush isn’t more widely known. He was one of our Founding Fathers, and a brilliant man - in the company of so many brilliant men in Philadelphia.

I wonder if anthropologists have ever studied the biological reasons why so many brilliant men were born in America in the Eighteenth Century, and raised with a passion for Freedom.

It is said that demographics is destiny, and our Eighteenth Century had the most special demography in the world!

[screaminsunshine]

Oborgma will assimilate you.

[throwback]

Too late Victor. The prescribed medicine is already in the drip. Piles of cash are sitting in vaults at the ready. Ben just put $300 billion in T-bills on his Visa. Just looking for the first signs now. Oil back to $80/bbl in a couple months?

[r9etb]

and so the voracious federal timberwolf is coming down from the estates of the rich still hungry

Great line.

[Mac from Cleveland]

“It is said that demographics is destiny”

If so, we’re in for it....

[maica]

Yes, we are returning to the serf state.

[nctexan]

"It is a shame that Benjamin Rush isn’t more widely known. He was one of our Founding Fathers, and a brilliant man - in the company of so many brilliant men in Philadelphia."

I've recently read two books that gave good insight into this great man. John Adams by McCullough and Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Ambrose.

It is a pity that few of our current "intellects" or "statesmen" can hold a candle to these men.

[maica]

Both great authors. I have read McCullough's John Adams, recommend it to everyone, and will look for the Ambrose book.

Another absolutely fantastic book by McCullough about a mostly unknown American visionary of the nineteenth century is The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge