Same Old Song & Dance

Today I read this brilliant column and it encapsulated perfectly what I've been saying & thinking for months: this administration is using the financial crisis to make the social and governmental changes it wants by blaming the whole thing on Bush and saying their way is only undoing the wrong done by the previous administration.  I call B.S.

[Nolanbuck's note - Most of you know where I stand politically, but for those who may not, I am a social conservative and a classical liberal in most other matters, including economics (which is not to be confused with modern liberalism, which is not true liberalism but rather progressivism...but I disgress.) I am a member of the Republican Party who has become increasingly disenchanted as the GOP turns out more & more to be "Democrat light".]
Everything that Mr. Obama has tried so far or proposed has been tried before, with mostly poor results. All of this "hope & change" is fancy wrapping for tired old progressivist ideas that didn't work in the previous century, and won't work in this one. Economic "stimulus" is creating a false recovery that has included a drastically weakened dollar and increasing unemployment, all of which will (if history is any indicator) lead to a second downturn in the economy in the coming months and years that I fear will be deeper than the first (see the late 1930's "second crash"). Regulation and government involvement in business during the 50's & 60's caused the stagnant economy of the 70's (also see the 90's in Japan, the so-called "lost decade").  This is nothing new, and most of the old ideas are the bad ones.
True laissez-faire, free-market policies will produce prosperity every time in the long run. Every.  Time.  I will grant you, free market capitalism is a dangerous beast sometimes, it can buck and thrash wildly on occasion and some companies and people will get hurt economically. But I will posit that many (if not all) of the undulations of the market are caused by our meddling and not by the market itself. And yes, corrupt businesses and people will taint the system and cause it to falter, but that is not the fault of the market, but of those unscrupulous few who would spike it for political or economic gain. In short, I am not pro-business, or even anti-government, but staunchly pro-market.
And I want to tear my hair out when the neo-con "borrow and spend" policies of the Bush administration are called free market or conservative ideals. Bush was not a conservative in the truest sense, he was a neo-con. Neo-cons began as liberals who abandoned the Democratic party in the 50s & 60s due to it's left turn on social issues. I was against Bush's spending and borrowing, his ridiculous immigrant amnesty bill, and a host of other things. The true conservatives biggest mistake was not loudly criticizing Bush when we disagreed, for fear of weakning the GOP's grip on power. Well, we let Bush crap the bed and the progressives now run the government, so in that we failed utterly. Lesson learned.

Nolanbuck

Building a Better Monster

The end of the U.S. dollar as the world's go-to currency began this year, as world banks put 63% of their cash in Euros and Yen over the summer, a stunning reversal from all of recent history.  With the Fed printing greenbacks like monopoly money to pay for the Obama administration's many spending programs that we can't afford, and low interest rates depressing the greenback's value, Fed chairman Bernake has killed the "meltdown" monster by creating a bigger one, making our dollar worthless to comsumers and foreign investors alike.

The problem is, we are paying off the massive debts incurred by Bush and Obama with dollars...dollars that are dropping in value, and foreign banks can't afford to overextend their dependence on the sagging greenback.  But raising interest rates and slowing the printing of money to strengthen the dollar will slow down any economic growth we may be producing and extend our recession.

This, ladies & gents, is why you cannot fix a recession or depression with government spending.  The governemnt can't afford this rampant spending that seems to be mainly going to Democrat-aligned groups like unions and the indigent (so much for "shovel-ready" projects).  And the spending hurts our currency's value, and leaves the government in an ever-increasing portion of our lives.

And Congress is about to stick us with paying for a disaster of a healthcare bill,and even a second stimulus bill.  Hang on to your wallets, folks.

Nolanbuck