Posted on 01/29/2008 6:00:50 PM PST by jazusamo
Both political parties seem determined that the federal government should create a "stimulus package" of things designed to cushion a downturn in the economy.
That alone should be enough to make us remember that "the devil is always in the details," because things that are bipartisan are often twice as bad as things that are partisan.
A bipartisan intervention is virtually guaranteed to be a grab bag of inconsistent policies thrown together in order to get the votes of people with contradictory ideas of what ought to be done.
The idea of a stimulus package is based on the general notion that there are things the government could do to make things better in the economy.
Unfortunately, there is a vast difference between what the government could do and what it is likely to do.
Economists can give you all sorts of scenarios in which government intervention could make things better, whether when fighting off a recession, regulating domestic markets or controlling international trade.
Some people even believe that whenever there is "market failure," the government ought to step in.
Of course markets can fail. Everything human can fail. But if Alex Rodriguez strikes out, do the Yankees take him out of the game and send in a pinch hitter for him?
No one would dream of suggesting such a thing. We are far more rational when discussing sports than when discussing politics.
The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better.
There are too many examples of government interventions that made things worse, the Great Depression of the 1930s being the most tragic.
Those on the left love to believe that the stock market crash of 1929 showed the failure...
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Boy, did he nail that one.
Yes he did, economics is his language.
Yes he did, economics is his language.
It seems as though people forgot that the free market goes down as well as up. They don’t remember that the down turns correct bad investments that need to be cleansed from the market. The longer this correction is postponed the deeper it will go and the longer it will last.
And Hunter and Tancredo and Paul all gave it the thumbs down today. Only 22 other GOP congresscritters voted no, so you can see where conservatism has drifted.
Time for a real conservative party to compete.
It would be a delicious irony indeed if all the senators who are pounding the table to turn this into a Christmas Tree get their wishes, GWB vetoes it, and they can’t override the veto. It would be the right outcome as a result of the best intentions of everybody involved.
Thanks for the update.
Flying a helicopter throwing money out of the door is not a “stimulus package”
Exactly! Glad I don’t have to wait on the government to give me $$$ to go to the mall and Starbucks, haa!
Yet another example of...hey, I’m in debt, I’m depressed so I go to the mall and charge another $300!!
Congress is stuck on stupid.
Bump!
I wonder who Dr. Sowell is voting for?
The same people were being pictured a few years ago as victims of heartless lenders who "redlined" them by refusing to lend.
Good stuff from Dr. Sowell, as always.
the only thing being stimulated is inflation and welfare.
*Standing Ovation!*
The phrase "the market" could be replaced with any number of other issues.
Example: The fact that airport security is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better.
Or the same people that where making a killing in the housing market a few years ago and writing books on how to make millions with no investment.
Now they are caught with their pants down.
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