Posted on 09/14/2011 4:20:04 PM PDT by Kaslin
Some people are hoping that President Obama's plan will get the economy out of the doldrums and start providing jobs for the unemployed. Others are hoping that the Republicans' plan will do the trick.
Those who are truly optimistic hope that Democrats and Republicans will both put aside their partisanship and do what is best for the country.
Almost nobody seems to hope the government will leave the economy alone to recover on its own. Indeed, almost nobody seems at all interested in looking at the hard facts about what happens when the government leaves the economy alone, compared to what happens when politicians intervene.
The grand myth that's been taught to whole generations is that the government is "forced" to intervene when there is a downturn that leaves millions of people suffering. The classic example is the Great Depression of the 1930s. What most people are unaware of is there was no Great Depression until after politicians started meddling in the economy.
There was a stock market crash in October 1929 and unemployment shot up to 9% — for one month. Then unemployment started drifting back down until it was 6.3% in June 1930, when the first major federal intervention took place. That was the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill, which more than a thousand economists across the country pleaded with Congress and President Hoover not to enact.
But then, as now, politicians decided they had to "do something." Within 6 months, unemployment hit double digits. Then, as now, when "doing something" made things worse, many felt the answer was to do something more.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
too bad they couldn’t figure that out a few years and a couple trillion dollars ago
Good point
These is seen during the Clintoon years. While Congress spent endless hours gridlocking legislation, and investigating Clintoon and his cast of neo-Marxists the economy did great.
Of course Reagan’s policies set the table for growth, and the fact the congress was more interesting in blue dresses and the Toons illegal activities, I beleive is directly responsible for the economy doing just fine.
But... but... how will Obama’s friends be able to loot more money from the taxpayers if there are no new stimulus programs?
Once again, government is the problem and never the solution. They live in an upside-down world bubble and have no answers whatsoever. Perhaps the state governments can help, federal government is a wreck of thieves and liars and is now a glutton tax collecting job destroying monster.
I was at a loggers meeting the Dec before BO was sworn in. A salesman asked me what I thought should be done about the economy. I said “Do NOTHING!” “It’ll work itself out and the bank bailouts were a scam pushed by the big banks.”
Well..look what happened.
Amen.
Sowell once again nails it. Too many people have had it drilled into their heads by Dems/mainstream media/etc. that the government has to “do something” for every perceived “crisis” or “problem”. Even when there isn’t a crisis, we end up with CFLs, CAFE standards for fuel economy, dishwasher detergent that doesn’t work and toilets that may not flush completely.
Imagine if we’d never “done something” about the “crises” of lending discrimination (CRA), lower home ownership percentages among the “disfavored” (Fannie and Freddie), the shock to the financial system from the housing bubble bursting from the foregoing (TARP; QE1, QE2, Stimulus), etc., etc. There would have been some very painful contraction back in 2008, but with a Reagan-like approach we’d be WAY, WAY ahead of where we are with Team Obama.
Do “nothing,” and we’re guaranteed to see a massive upswing in unemployment when businesses start seeing the impacts of Obamacare. I just sat down with our accountant and went over the impacts to my business, and from what she showed me I can say with absolute surety that for employers across the country the impact of this monster is going to be dramatic. I’ll bet that if nothing is changed in DC and they implement Obamacare fully, national unemployment will jump to at least 12 percent.
And “no,” the White House hasn’t offered me any waivers...
You have to give the Baraqqis credit. The waiver scheme is a great way to reward allies and punish enemies.
Only with the full buy-in of the MSM could something like this happen.
Vote Obama out!
On a more serious note Thomas Sowell doesn’t mention the one feature of the 30s that did the real damage that made the Depression what it was. And this was the collapse of thousands of American banks over the years 1930-33.
A full one-third of the American money supply evaporated. There was no FDIC then. Depositors had their savings wiped out, with the result that “demand” disappeared for years. We have had nothing since then that approximates this sort of disaster.
This recent crisis was the first since the 30s to threaten the banking system in a major way. The trillions of dollars of mortgage securities and their derivatives are like time bombs inside the banks that hold them. They have done a lot of damage so far and there may be more to come.
“Drop that Stimulus and back Away from the Executive Orders!” (or the economy Gets it.)
The problem with doing nothing is that it freezes in place the jack boot of the thug’s regime on the neck of the economy. But, perhaps the best to hope for with Reed’s Senate and zer0’s exec is to do nothing, and limp to January 2013.
You have no choice. Nothing can be done except bitch and moan
They won.
Yes...and also a clear violation of the “Equal Protection” clause. I wish some company or state would sue based on that (in addition to the constitutional issues).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.