Freedoms Truth

Policy Lessons from the Great Depression

1930? 1937?
The real folly is thinking we are in either cases. We are in the 2009 and 2010 timeframe, circumstances, technology, and much more is different than the same. There are lessons from the great depression, but its not a simplistic 'its just like 70 years ago', when so much is different.

The greatest risk to our economy right how is a leadership in Washington, DC, that pursues tax, regulation and spending policies directed at harming the private sector economy. Of particular concern is the triple threat of ObamaCare, cap&trade, and the ending of the Bush tax cuts. Together, they represent about a $3 trillion (over ten years) tax hike, enough to spiral us into another recession. For those looking for historical repeats, its what Roosevelt did to the economy in 1937-1938 when he raised taxes.

The second greatest risk/factor is the ongoing deleveraging of the economy. If the folks in DC were pro-growth, however, we would get through the deleveraging in short order and come out in decent shape. That is not destined to happen while Obama/Reid/Pelosi run the government.

Policy Lessons from the Great Depression

Socialism is indeed an economic system, and an inherently flawed one at that. It has nothing to do with caring for the poor (although socialism/communism is sold on that) and everything to do with putting all faith in govt to own, plan, regulate and run the economy. It never works, because we fallible humans require feedback to correct mistakes. socialism takes away the feedback of price action, competition, consumer choice, and return-on-investment that makes the real, natural (capitalist) economy work. without that feedback, socialism ends up creating massive economic waste, poverty and misallocation of resources. A review of USSR's economy is instructive on that point.


On Nov 01 09:16 AM CLH wrote:

> The comparison of capitalism to socialism makes no sense at all.
> Capitalism is an economic system and the only one we have. Socialism
> is a religion based on the same things as Christianity (caring for
> the poor and doing away with war etc). Lets not compare apples and
> oranges.
>
> The review is a very good one. This is shown by the many comments.

Policy Lessons from the Great Depression

> John Galt,
> Interesting that you would categorize FDR as the worst president in the history of the US.
>
> Yet, US Presidential polls covering many thousands of historians,
> researchers, academics, writers, etc who have spent their entire
> professional lives studying US Presidents and writing about them totally disagree with you..."

American History in academia today is the polemic of the liberal left that adores more government power and wants the original constitution trashed and replaced by one more in line with socialist thinking. Surveys of academia now show a bias so strong that Republicans/conservatives are an endangered species and on college faculties, you have a mix of 'left' and 'far left'. As such, they adore FDR, the man who did more to destroy American liberty than any other President.

ebworthen: "FDR has been similarly mythologized and his transgressions against the Constitution and the rights of the individual ignored by those who look to others rather than themselves for security.

The nation recovered despite FDR. Our leaders don't save us or condemn us, we do. The writers of history have decided to put FDR on a pedestal because he was a progressive, a socialist, a man who lived by the maxim "do as I say, not as I do" and whose presidency marked the turning point from state power to oppressive federal hegemony.

This centralized planning nanny state perspective appeals to historians and the media because they are, for the most part, liberal leaning national socialists (remember - that is what the Nazis were) who are afraid of the freedom and liberty and requisite responsibility of individualism and self-determination."

Exactly so.

Policy Lessons from the Great Depression

"Personally, I do believe in pure Capitalism and am all for letting industry regulate itself".
"We tried that Sir. That's how we got into this mess. "

Ahem, we haven't allowed pure capitalism in the USA for over a century. FDA, Fed, OSHA, EPA, SocSec, HHS, FDIC, SEC, utilities regs, Medicare, the list goes on. All funded by a system where Government takes more than a third of our GDP and controls (too) much of the rest.

The 'lets regulate' crowd needs to stop living in the past and stop blaming capitalism for the mistakes of a flawed and fallible central government.

The Economic Recovery That Isn't

Schiff's focus on JOBS is well-placed. What is as bad as the jobs report is the average workweek, and looking at the fact that our economy is currently putting the total amount of hours that was put it back in 2002 - is that the path to a growing economy?


The first step on the road to long-term recovery is to stop killing jobs with bad Government policies. Will the Obama/Democrat zeal to socialize healthcare careen our nation on a path to inevitable fiscal ruin as the taxes and mandates just kill future jobs?

Now comes crunch time in DC. If this is passed, USA's economic pre-eminence will be history. Save America's economy, Stop ObamaCare!

Sentiment Overview: Surprising Increase in Optimism

There is One and only One Major leading economic indicator that owerwhelms all others right now... Will the Obama/Democrat zeal to socialize healthcare careen our nation on a path to inevitabl fiscal ruin. The markets have perked up on ever Obama setback, and fell back when ObamaCare advanced.

Now comes crunch time. If this is passed, USA's economic pre-eminence will be history. Save America's economy, Stop ObamaCare.

This Recession Ain’t Over

"Why do writers seldom talk about what it would take to get this economy back on a healthy road? Like a smaller and less intrusive and controlling federal government. Like lower taxes. Like eliminating many rules, regulations and laws that prevent the private sector from doing it's job. It is the private sector that creates new businesses and new jobs. It is the private sector that keeps the government sector afloat. Yet the public sector does all it can to stifle that sector. Makes no sense to me. "

You have awesome ideas ... but ... So long as Obama and the Democrat are in charge of Washington DC, their approach will be the opposite of that. They are about to destroy healthcare innovation for the next generation *AND* tee us up for massive new taxes and the destruction of state budgets, all in one fell swoop.

So proposing doing that is a bit like trying to round up virgins in a whorehouse. It might be fun, but it's an exercise unlikely to succeed.

6 Ways to Short the Obama Health Plan

Correction to previous comment: The trillion dollar loopholes and giveaways (in Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill) to buy support mean that it guts real CO2 REDUCTION and sends billions to places like Brazil.

6 Ways to Short the Obama Health Plan

"For purposes of full disclosure, I voted for Obama"

Thanks for voting to destroy what's left of this country, you moron. I would forgive those who by now have realized they made a mistake, but if you are still committed to supporting this socialist charlatan still, it shows you really lack the judgment to be trusted to foresee the market.

Forget Green Shoots: These Are the Brown Shoots Turning Black

"The facts: Obama raised more money than any candidate, and probably owns more stock that any of us. So to imply that he's a socialist, while he's clearly in the pockets of big business, is just retarded (almost as retarded as G.W. Bush)."

The argument that smoeone cant be a socialist because liberal billionaires supported him is lame. What's retarded is not knowing that there are some very rich people who are very leftist, even communists. George Soros, the billionaire who funded not just Obama but Moveon.org, comes to mind, as does the Lamont family, one family member took on Sen Lieberman in 2006, from the left.

Forget Green Shoots: These Are the Brown Shoots Turning Black

"Wall Street threw the country's financial body over a log and banged away while W ruled the roost, but somehow it's Obama's fault for not fixing things after less than a year in office? That IS priceless. "

More jobs have been lost in 6 months under Obama than under Bush during any period of time. Or that matter, this is the worst jobs performance for any first-6-months-of-a-pr... ever.

"
Endless excuses based on "Bush did it" won't cut it anymore. Leadership is in order. Not more of the same old stuff."

BINGO. If I had an employee who whined that his non-performance was due to the last loser I fired, I'd fire him too. So let's get real and not simplistic here: The US market is underperforming China's stock market -why ? Obama's socialist agenda scare the bejeesus out of the business sector. Cap-and-trade and socialized medicine is whats killing the 'green shoots'.

I seem to recall last year a bogus claim by Obama that his inexperienced self was going to be ready on day one. I seem to recall a promise that the bogus 'stimulus' had to be rush-passed to stop the bleeding, and that it would 'save or create 3 million jobs'. I seem to recall that the Obama administration estimate was a max unemployment of 8% if the stimulus passed. We are at 9.5%, and we will not get under 8% for ... years.

If you make big promises, expect to be called on it when you BLOW IT. Obama lied, Jobs died. America is in a hole, and Obama's plan? Dig DEEPER.

Forget Green Shoots: These Are the Brown Shoots Turning Black

"Barak, the smoke and mirrors president, was taken to task for pointing out economic realities by the media and wall street, and for making us unhappy. With a bit of pressure he changed his tune, like he always does, and "green shoots". "

Wrong. What Obama did was say whatever it took to get what he wanted. Thus in January the sky was falling unless we passed the trillion dollar pork barrel spending bill falsely called 'stimulus'. When - surprise, surprise - deficit spending and bailouts of govts programs combined with threats to increase deficits, taxes, regulations and govt control fail to 'stimulate' a brow-beaten private sector, we get nonsense like VP Biden "nobody predicted this" and Obama's arrogant "I wouldnt have done anything differently."

Obama has already blown it. His stimulus is already a failure. What's changed in the last 2 weeks is that the 'green shoots' that signal that failure have become obvious - 3 million lost jobs and counting. That's 6 million jobs deficit compared to what Obama promised. What's also changed is that Obama has dug himself a hole by tying himself to his own fraudulent promises with his bogus claim that the stimulus has 'worked as intended'.

3 million unemployed Americans beg to differ.

U.S. Economy: Does It Need More Stimulus?

" perhaps a little look at the True reasons for the post war recovery by Germany "

... You would find that hard money and free market economics by Konrad Adenauer was repsonsible for Germany's 'miracle from 1945-1970.

www.econlib.org/librar...
"What caused the so-called miracle? The two main factors were currency reform and the elimination of price controls, both of which happened over a period of weeks in 1948. A further factor was the reduction of marginal tax rates later in 1948 and in 1949."

Federal Budget Watch: Same Old Talking Points, But the Parties Are Reversed

"It's time for the political bickering,inconsequential distractions and blame game to end,the goal should now become a unification of Dems and Reps to fix this mess. "

Rahm Emanuel gave it away right after the election, saying that they werent going to 'let this crisis go to waste' meaning, the crisis is their excuse to ram through their entire left-liberal agenda. That's why the 'stimulus' became a phony trillion dollar boondoggle of every pet liberal project imagined in the past decade. It was not stimulus at all, IT WAS A TROJAN HORSE for liberalism.

Multiple opportunities for real private sector stimulus have been taken away - regulatory reform (eg fixing sarbanes-oxley), tax reform/reduction, and market-confidence building. They didnt go that route. They went the grow-the-govt route.

With that mentality in the Obama white house, there is no 'working with Republicans', there is only attempts to brow beat them to accept the toxic assets of bad left-liberal policy.

Federal Budget Watch: Same Old Talking Points, But the Parties Are Reversed

" I agree with Ed K that fixing the econmy comes first. However, improving our sorry education system, improving the energy effieincy of the economy and getting some control and fairness out of health care will help provide long term structural improvements to our economy."

1. Our education system is getting worse due to special interests (teachers unions, NEA) that have a lockhold on the Democrats and prevent real reform. In the past 25 years, we have double per pupil spending but gotten no improvement in outcomes.
The Democrats keep making it worse.
2. "energy efficiency" - the wasteful and inefficient squandering of resources on energy saps our economy - Ethanol subsidies, alternative energy subsidies, regulations that prevent domestic drilling or other energy generation. The Democrats with their drill-nowhere tax-success and subsidize-the-inefficient mentality are making it worse.
3. "control and fairness out of health care" It is unfair that the Democrat are taxing people making under median family wage to subsidize health care for people making over that amount; it is unfair that Democrats added regulations that increase the cost of health insurance and insist on stopping reasonable medical malpractice reform. They are creating the crisis with over-regulation and now intend to harm the 250 million of us who have health insurance in the name of helping those without ... except many of those without health insurance are illegal aliens. If we started enforcing immigration law a lot of these problems would be lessened.

Democrats will make these problems worse not better. These issues are problems because of previous failed and flawed policies of the Democrats. Imagining the further socialization of health care, energy and education will 'fix' anything is a sorry pipedream.