"So when our economy collapses after the deficit is doubled, it will be—my bad!
Otherwise, I am with you, Mr. President. Keep up the good work."
—Christopher Buckley
On the Way To The Dressing Room After The Game
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Celebrated Scenes III
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4 hours ago
so many on the right are simply taking it as an article of faith that all the scary spending and socialism that obama is doing will absolutely and unquestionably lead to economic Armageddon, replete with hyperinflation, neutered growth, skyrocketing taxes on every American (including babies!), rampant unemployment and eventual financial collapse. it will be interesting to see the dynamic in 2012 if and when the economy has mostly recovered and we are in a period of robust growth, lower unemployment, lowered taxes on 95% of Americans and low inflation. i'm not saying that it will necessarily occur but, if it does, the GOP will have forever buried any last glimmers of dogmatic conservative economic ideology. people will have listened to the doomsayers, saw what Obama did and then saw what resulted. if hyperinflation and financial Armageddon doesn't happen, methinks the conservative middle is going to need to resurrect the Whig Party
ReplyDeleteIt's not so much the recession stimulus spending that concerns me--credit is cheap right now.
ReplyDeleteI'm concerned about the moral hazard of privatized gains and socialized losses--that's not capitalism.
But what concerns me the most is the long-term deficit of Obama's budgeting, i.e. 2012 and beyond. I think Chris would agree.
By "credit is cheap right now." I mean for the US government, i.e. treasury securities.
ReplyDelete"I'm concerned about the moral hazard of privatized gains and socialized losses"Me too. We're going to need a serious overhaul of financial industry regulation, including the creation of a robust resolution agency like the FDIC for monster financial firms that become insolvent and threaten to take down the whole financial system with them. and/or, we should figure out a way to bust up the huge bastards that currently exist and institute regulatory controls to ensure that they never again get "too big to fail".
ReplyDelete"But what concerns me the most is the long-term deficit of Obama's budgeting, i.e. 2012 and beyond."I understand -- long-term solvency is a wise concern. My thought above mostly had to do with the 4-year window because, I suspect, if Obama pulls off a return to some semblance of stability and growth, the final nail will be in the coffin of the current "tax cuts solve everything/we hate spending (except when we do it!)" GOP ideology.
In terms of long-term fiscal health, we should always bear in mind not only what Obama/Congress is doing today, but also what Bush/Congress did over the last eight years. The explosion of spending under Bush coupled with the cratering of the tax revenue base during a time of prosecuting two wars overseas left Obama with a really bad hand to play. As long as we look at the situation holistically, and lump together Obama's performance alongside Bush's, I think there is a great debate to be had.