Category Archives: Barack Obama

‘I.O.U.S.A’ Forever After

Barack Obama, Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Political Economy

I am unable to locate the Bloomberg TV segment in which Robert Auerbach, Professor of Public Affairs at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, disputed the fiscal multiplier effect with reference to research he had undertaken with Milton Friedman. Crumbs, for sure …

Milton Friedman was no Austrian economist. Neither is Auerbach—but at least he has admitted that after he “transferred from the teachings of Abba Lerner [some frightful Neo-Keynesian] to the teachings of Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago,” he “became convinced that Abba had made a terrible mistake. ‘Heavy reliance’ on running the printing press to finance government spending is not immune to serious consequences. There are substantial immediate effects as well as expectations of inflation and higher interest rates that may well appear over time.”

[SNIP]

The state of political economy in the US being what it is, I can safely copy and paste from past articles a response to current, repeat-offender policies. The latest crazed impetus from Zero and his advisers is a “new” “jobs agenda.” “‘I.O.U.S.A'” was written in 2008 on the occasion of BHO’s first fake money infusion:

“Fresh off the printing press, the trillions in new spending Obama is planning will only make matters worse. Understand, government can’t create wealth; it only consumes it, or moves it about. Not even Magic Man Obama can make sustainable jobs materialize by borrowing and counterfeiting. Only the private sector can create sustainable jobs—-sustainable because driven by consumer preferences, as opposed to bureaucratic whim. The more taxing, printing, and borrowing the government does, in the vain name of job creation, the less capital will the private sector have with which to create long-lasting employment.”

UPDATED: Republikeynesians Pretend They’re Not Sidelining Paul

Barack Obama, Debt, Democrats, Economy, Elections, Federal Reserve Bank, Foreign Policy, Israel, Republicans, Ron Paul

Megyn Kelly interviewed Ron Paul about the snubbing he has received from the “mainstream media.” “RepubliKeynesians” have been front-and-center in a concerted attempt to ignore Ron Paul’s showing in the 2011 Iowa Straw Poll. One could say that Paul jostled with Mrs. Bachmann for first place, given the 152 votes that separated the two.

Paul sounded strong in the Kelly clip, which has not come online yet. (And he reiterated these Israel-related points, which was gratifying, of course.)

Here is the often dazzlingly brilliant Jon Stewart “savaging the media for treating Paul like he’s the ‘thirteenth floor in a hotel.'” (Via the NYT)

UPDATE (Aug. 17): Jon Stewart is often brilliant, but he is no classical liberal. He’s an economic ignoramus. Classical liberalism is first and foremost about the freedom to make a living. Stewart knows squat about such freedoms.

Day-Time Tripping Over Triple A

Barack Obama, Business, Debt, Democrats, Economy, Elections, EU, Europe

In a world in which the written word is rapidly ceding to sound and images, good luck with finding the transcripts of President Barack Obama’s latest address. I’ve captured some of BHO’s verbal vapors for you. In responding to market madness, Obama, by the way, has said exactly what Bush or any Republican president would have said in his place—and that goes for mega Chris Christie, the Lovable Great Leader GOP devotee Ann Coulter fantasizes about.

Essentially, BHO believes that the downgrading of the US’s credit rating was a function of the country’s mischievous political shenanigans: the leadership’s wrangling over the debt ceiling, and not the debt itself.

Standard & Poor’s, the money market’s mortician, was reacting to our dysfunctional political system—to gridlock on Capitol Hill—and not to any economic reality.

US credit, says BHO, is still among the safest in the world. How does he know this? The rest of the world—Europe, Asia, etc.—are faring worse than we are. This is the sum-total of CNN and MSNBC’s “crayon level thinking”; the mantra John King USA, Ali Velshi (Egghead), Wolf Blitzer and Chris Matthews find persuasive.

But from the fact that the world is in bad shape it doesn’t follow that the US is better off.

BHO further galvanized the opinion of wealthy statist Warren Buffett who claims the USA deserves and quadruple A rating.

Yes, yes, we need to effect long-term changes, confirmed Zero, but we have already done all that can be done on the deficit and debt reduction fronts. The time now is ripe for “tax reform,” and mere “modest adjustments” to the large social programs (referred to for good reason as Third-Rail issues, because their reform is so popular with politicians and the people. The latter don’t ever want to be without the warmth of the government udder; the former don’t want to have to make a living in the real job market).

Reiterating the Matthews and Maddow “crayon level thinking,” Da Man went on to warn that any further cutting in government programs would … would… would—here I invite the reader to complete BHO’s warning with the most horrible scenario he can possible imagine. My choice: Donald Trump gets elected.

The president called on the country’s planners to show good will and promised the country—BEHOLD!—another committee, which, as this wily fox well knows, is one way to bury an issue for good.

Cutting the distribution machine that has crippled America’s private economy would be deadly to this very economy—so claims BHO. Thus, deficit spending on programs such as unemployment insurance must be extended. To be fair to this ass with ears, the president did tout the payroll-tax cut.

Darker Clouds On the Horizon

Affirmative Action, Barack Obama, Economy, Race, Taxation, Welfare

The dynamics Pat Buchanan describes in his latest column, “Black America vs. Obama?,” might very well be borne out: African-Americans will likely turn on the black president who was forced to slash the oink sector in which they are overrepresented.

Though 10 percent of the U.S. civilian labor force, African-Americans are 18 percent of U.S. government workers. They are 25 percent of the employees at Treasury and Veterans Affairs, 31 percent of the State Department, 37 percent of Department of Education employees and 38 percent of Housing and Urban Development. They are 42 percent of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., 55 percent of the employees at the Government Printing Office and 82 percent at the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency.
When the Obama administration suggested shutting down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants whose losses of $150 billion have had to be made up by taxpayers, The Washington Post warned, in a story headlined, “Winding Down Fannie and Freddie Could Put Minority Careers at Risk,” that 44 percent of Fannie employees and 50 percent of Freddie’s were persons of color.
In Washington, D.C., we have also seen the result of government cuts on African-American leaders who had to approve those cuts.
When Mayor Adrian Fenty stood behind schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, who fired hundreds of teachers, most of them African-American, the wards east of the Anacostia cut him dead. In 2010, Fenty was thrown out by many of the black voters who elected him

Is this is a welcome development? Hardly. (And I fully understand that Mr. Buchanan is hardly making such a claim.)

While coalitions of the aggrieved are good, where here is there a coalition for freedom-loving Americans to pursue? Fifty percent or so of Americans—those who pay the taxes—want the excesses of the oink sector curtailed. The African-American cohort Buchanan cites wants these programs to carry on in perpetuity.

It’s possible that Mr. Buchanan is simply warning that African-Americans are just going to get angrier and angrier.