"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result" - Albert Einstein
One of the brightest men ever to walk the earth.
President Obama (in a bit more than two weeks) doesn't even make it into the bush leagues compared to Mr. Einstein.
“These are America’s problems, and we must come together as Americans to meet them with the urgency this moment demands,” he said today in his weekly radio address. “If we don’t act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment.”
Well, you got it half right Mr. Obama.
The half being that these are America's problems, and we must meet them with urgency.
The half you got wrong is that your prescription will make it better.
Specifically:
"The incoming 44th president, back on the U.S. mainland after a 12-day vacation in Hawaii, is working on a package of tax cuts and spending on infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and transit systems, to stimulate growth and create 3 million jobs. Eighty percent of these will be in the private sector, he said. "
Uh huh. And where will you get the money?
Oh, you'll simply load on more debt, right?
Isn't that how we got here in the first place - spurring on more debt after the 00-03 Tech Market implosion?
Indeed.
You also have recorded history on this, which says it doesn't work. Japan, for instance, as the WSJ points out:
"Not to spoil the party, but this is not a new idea. Keynesian "pump-priming" in a recession has often been tried, and as an economic stimulus it is overrated. The money that the government spends has to come from somewhere, which means from the private economy in higher taxes or borrowing. The public works are usually less productive than the foregone private investment."
No kidding. Never mind that the debt remains left behind, and it continues to drag on the economy in perpetuity.
The problem is who you're listening to. People like Buffett, who should have (and could have) avoided a huge drawdown in Berkshire's value - but didn't. People like Geithner, who along with Bernanke know how to perform compound interest calculations, but simply didn't care during the 03-07 time frame.
Along with Paulson they supported the removal of leverage limits, repeal of Glass-Steagall and other regulatory "reforms" that effectively let the banking system place huge bets with non-existent capital - exactly identical to walking into a Casino in Vegas and writing worthless markers.
The only difference is that when you do that sort of thing in Vegas you either go to jail for fraud or Guido breaks your kneecaps.
In Washington DC you get made Treasury Secretary and are able to cash out $500 million smackers for yourself, tax free, then bill the Taxpayer for your obvious and blatant line of BS.
The people of this nation voted for change Mr. Obama, not "more of the same."
Yet "more of the same" is exactly what you're proposing when it comes to economic policy, even though if you are really as intelligent as you (and others) have claimed you know full well it won't work.
10% unemployment?
What you're doing here will guarantee 15% unemployment. Oh, perhaps not immediately, but I'm willing to wager you won't get to the end of your first and only term before this all comes crashing down on your head, and it may happen within the year.
You cannot solve the problems this economy has until the bad debt is forced into the open and is either paid down or defaulted, the liars are locked up for their crimes, the off-balance-sheet games are permanently halted and the laws that prevented this crap from happening are reinstated and, more importantly, enforced.
I've seen exactly none of that proposed by you sir, which tells me that instead of preparing for a better future ahead of myself and my family I should instead prepare for economic and political Armageddon, for the path you are on and the one your advisers are recommending to you is certain to lead to disaster.
Oh, and if you think The American People are going to fall for it, well, how do you say "good luck" in Japanese? Being lied to and bamboozled now for over 20 years, the people are waking up fast to the fact that folks like Madoff are not the exception - they're the rule - and that these scams, frauds and charlatans could only exist with not only a willful blind eye in Washington DC but with explicit involvement and complicity in the fraud.
Ultimately the Wizard is either forced to sheepishly admit the truth and do the right thing or he risks the people starting to pen documents that begin with the sentence "When in the course of human events......"
