Thank you for the link, and having read it I would disagree. I think Jones will prove the much more able jurist because I think she is much more grounded in the real world.
In fact, I find Brown a bit disturbing. Someone who tries to analyze our current predicaments by drawing a straight line from Procul Harem through the New Deal will end up falling off the tracks.
Perhaps the resulting ascendencey of liberilism and 50 year dominance of Democrats is the result of the New Deal, but the bury your head in the sand attitude of the Republicans in response to the credit collapse and the depression is more the cause of that then any measures to restore economic activity to a moribund economy.
One can just as well blame it all on credit cycles. Now a good conservative would argue that over-expansion of credit is a very very bad thing, but that is not the fault of having a public sector and big government. In fact, one of the reasons for the creation of central banks is that private banks were just as capable of expanding credit and creating subsequent collapses as is the public sector. The most recent financial system shocks have been the result of the expansion of credit through derivatives, which is almost entirely a private phenomenon.
I am, in fact, very concerned about conservatives who believe that large unaccountable private institutions are somehow less of a threat to individual liberties than are public institutions, this after Enron.
Well, you're correct that the Great Depression is significant in a number of important ways. I also think our public schools and society has created a number of myths about the great depression.
http://www.neoperspectives.com/greatdepression.htm
But as many modern economists are now suggesting, and contrary to popular belief, Roosevelt's higher government spending on his many new programs combined with higher taxes and shrinking of state power actually prolonged and deepened the Great Depression. A good illustration of FDR's role in this can be found in Jim Powell's book, "FDR's Folly" (1). Today we are stuck with many growth retarding programs like Medicaid, Social Security, and countless others that have far outlived their useful (hurtful) purpose. These programs have and continue to drain trillions from our GDP and have fostered corruption by the powers given to the many created regulatory agencies.
But, in their eagerness to blame Roosevelt, Conservatives today often forget that Republican President Herbert Hoover is credited with triggering the Great Depression by drastically reducing the money supply, ostensibly in order to prevent it. He also responded disastrously by passing the Revenue Act of 1932 which increased the top income tax rate from 25% to 63% with the aim being to restore business confidence by reducing the deficit. The results of this tax increase was an even greater deficit, plummeting tax revenues and a greater Depression (5). If President Hoover had more gradually and reasonably tightened the money supply and cut taxes when the depression first hit, the outcome might have been far different.
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So, I love that JRB attacks Roosevelt for what he is, the worst president ever in the history of the United Sates. But you're point about private and public similarities in overrextending credit etc.. is well taken and valid. But, if they are both the same, then why not just keep it private?
"I am, in fact, very concerned about conservatives who believe that large unaccountable private institutions are somehow less of a threat to individual liberties than are public institutions, this after Enron."
I think this is a criminal case, executives stealing from employees (by nulifiying their promised pensions/health benefits etc..) and should be prosecuted as such.
I often hear this argument, that private companies can become just as tyrannical as government. I believe this to be false. Private companies cannot make law. Private companies cannot throw you in jail if you do not comply with their laws. Government does this all the time, in order to, in effect, legally steal from us, or enabling private companies to do so. (some examples):
http://www.neoperspectives.com/rhetoric.htm
So, I believe Government will always be a greater threat than any private institution.
Janice Rogers Brown believes this, which is why I support her for the SCOTUS. Some more quotes by JRB:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/janicerogersbrown.htm
Good morning.
"I am, in fact, very concerned about conservatives who believe that large unaccountable private institutions are somehow less of a threat to individual liberties than are public institutions, this after Enron."
Private institutions, large or small, do not coerce you into interacting with them. Public institutions usually require, under threat of some form of penalty, that we interact with them.
Michael Frazier