Posted: 05/13/2008
Obama's Excremental Economics By Thomas E. Brewton
As prolongation of the 1930s Depression and stagflation in the 1970s demonstrated, Senator Obama's announced policies are a prescription for economic disaster.
Keynesian economic doctrine, not under that name, but in substance, is back in the news in a truly menacing way. Senator Obama proposes to repeat the policies of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal that turned an ordinary two-year recession into an eight-year disaster, with unemployment rates continuously in the high teens.
The key elements of Senator Obama's proposed economic policies, as in the New Deal and the stagflation of the 1970s, are much higher taxes, along with a pervasive increase of business regulations and price controls in healthcare and energy (which sharply depress business activity and employment rates), full-frontal embrace of labor unions (which will push up wages and benefits to levels deterring profitable expansion of industrial production), and massive new government deficit spending (which will accelerate the already dangerously high rate of inflation and devaluation of the dollar). Carried out as he proposes, Senator Obama's polices will lead us into the swamp of stagflation.
The basic thrust of Keynesianism is the belief that control of the economy must be collectivized at the Federal level, because private business is incapable of providing full employment, and because the proper goal of economic policy must be thwarting greedy businessmen to attain so-called social justice: equal distribution of income and wealth, without regard to merit, capability, or hard work.
Not surprisingly the New York Times editorial board and the Times's propagandist Paul Krugman are prominent Keynesian enthusiasts.
In practice (in the 1930s Depression and in the 1970s stagflation) Keynesian economics caused devastating harm to every citizen. In the stagflation of the 1970s not only was unemployment distressingly high, particularly in Midwestern industrial areas, which became known as the Rustbowl, but inflation wiped out roughly 57% of the purchasing power of every citizen's lifetime savings.
For an eminently readable analysis of Keynesian economics, the economic bedrock of liberal-progressive worship of the socialist religion, read Professor Murray Rothbard's 1947 critique, "Spotlight on Keynesian Economics" from the Mises.org website. ( http:// mises.org/story/2950# )
One caution: when Professor Rothbard speaks of liberal economists, he is using the classic terminology of 18th England that referred to true freedom: laissez-faire economics, free from government intervention, not to today's American sect of the international religion of socialism.
Thomas E. Brewton is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc. The New Media Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets.
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In 1913, Woodrow Wilson signed into law, the Federal Reserve Act and the Federal Income Tax. Three years later Wilson said: "The growth of the nation and all our activities aree in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled; one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world...no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the free vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." In 1919, John Maynard Keynes, who later became economic advisor to FDR, wrote in his book, "The Economic Consequences of Peace": "Lenin is to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch athe currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates widely from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless." Most of the New Deal spending programs to fight economic depression, were based on Keynes theory of deficit spending, and financed by borrowing against future taxes. On June 10, 1932, Rep. Louis McFadden, who served as chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee said: "We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the U.S. for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers. The FED has usurped the government. It controls everything here in Congress and controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will." These are quotes from three key economic players in the last century. George Cancilla Click here to reply to this post
Bush did it!
Posted On: 05/13/08 11:38:28 PM
Age 55, FL
Your article is astonishing! The Titanic ship of state is sinking, and you try to blame Obama! In your rush to attach FUTURE blame to Obama don't forget who created and presided over the growing disaster. The Titanic was a big ship, and took some time to sink. Too bad for their captain, he couldn't change ships, then blame the next guy, as Bush hopes to do. Amazing how some would start blaming Obama for what Bush has done. Weak as Clinton's morals were, at least he got us headed in a better direction financially. Bush turned the ship of state around, hit the iceberg of Iraq, sunk it, and he needs to get the credit. Don't be fooled by those trying to blame Obama for what Bush has already done! Duhhb-ya gave us massive tax cuts for the very rich in a time of war, no less! BUSH, REPUBLICANS, BUSH....Goodbye Republicans, the landslind is coming. If I can do one thing while I stand in the soup-kitchen line, its make sure Bush and the Republicans get the credit they so richly deserve. Click here to reply to this post
Excremental Economics :)
Posted On: 05/13/08 10:00:41 PM
Age 61, MO
Maybe we need to get Ross Perot back to help “clean out the barn.” Keynesian economics must go. John Maynard Keynes was anything but a morally upright person. Some folks might take offense at the euphemism in the article’s title, but I see nothing wrong with calling a spade, a spade. Here are some things we should shoot for in our economic endeavors: Secure all of the borders from all illegal entries. Control the runaway “health industry” and the corrupt deception of pharmaceuticals. Eliminate the FDA, allow testing by the CDC. Repeal NAFTA, WTO, or other trade related agreements harmful to US industry and reject any North American Union efforts. Eliminate the Federal Reserve System immediately, revoke its charter. Eliminate the Internal Revenue System. Tax according to the Constitution’s allowable requirements. Stop the illegal forced collection of taxes from the American worker. Eliminate US participation or support of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Drill for and use our own oil in America, off-shore and in Alaska. Remove unnecessary government regulations for refineries. Declare all lobbying at any governmental level by private industry as illegal, a felony. Enact a 3x amount import tax on all products formerly created within the US. Create a tariff system that works and that would require all products originating out of country to pass safety measures and pricing standards protective of this nation’s manufacturers and this nation’s workers. Declare that corporations are no longer “persons,” have only granted privileges and do only what their charters permit. If they fail their charter obligations they may be permanently revoked within 30 days. All public contracts paid for with “tax” money are competitive bid only. No exceptions. No monopolies of any kind, break up monster corporations. Eliminate the Homeland Security Act. Eliminate the Patriot Act. Eliminate all federal agencies not specifically authorized in the Constitution. Reduce the size and budget of the federal government by 80% without exception. States should adhere to the same standard. Eliminate the national debt by decree. Return to constitutional coinage and value. All banks to be local. No fractional banking, that practice is a felony--lifetime in prison. No credit cards of any kind. Please feel free to wipe out any excremental items that you don’t like. George Cancilla Click here to reply to this post
