President & DC Liberals Laying The Ground For Another Great Depression
Published by AJStrata at 8:07 am under All General Discussions
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There are “troubling similarities” between the US President’s actions since taking office and those which in the 1930s sent the US and much of the world spiralling into the worst economic collapse in recorded history, says the new pamphlet, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.I have been loathe to jump on the “economy is headed for a wreck” bandwagon for a couple of reasons. But now I have to admit the possibility the misguided and ignorant liberal policies in play could doom this nation to a long economic grind. Of course, assuming the current and proposed screw ups well up being misguided and ignorant is being optimistic on the drivers here. There could be much more sinister plans at work here – assuming people cling to the government for help during bad economic times, as opposed to throwing the screw ups out of power and bringing in fresh, young blood.
The first big siren call that the President and Congress were throwing salt on the economic wounds came from overseas actually, the UK to be exact:
Barak Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan.
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There are “troubling similarities” between the US President’s actions since taking office and those which in the 1930s sent the US and much of the world spiralling into the worst economic collapse in recorded history, says the new pamphlet, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.
In particular, the authors, economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute, claim that the White House’s plans to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of cash into the economy will undermine it in the long run. They say that by employing deficit spending and increased state intervention President Obama will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the US economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years.
OK, that was part theory. The fact is there has been evidence for a while the liberal policies coming out of DC were going to really hurt the economy, and therefore every person in the country except the uber rich. The stimulus package is a prime example of all talk, no results. It relied on the bloated and sluggish government bureaucracy to start up make work projects. They should be starting up in mass in by next year. The government processes are that slow. Instead of using tax cuts to prime the economic pump, they pulled money out of the economy and sent it towards pork projects of preferred constituents. Seems only the good shall be rescued.
But it is getting worse – even as America has yet to fathom that possibility. The Cap & Trade proposals to pretend to shrink CO2 will cost each family a significant chunk of their money (some claim $1800 a year – I think it will be much higher). Nothing new will happen, just life will be much more expensive. Even though we now have evidence from a new space mission, designed to show exactly were the green house gas producers are on Earth, that America is not a massive green house gas producer after all! Nothing we do here will offset the large producers of green house gas in Europe, Asian, the Mideast and Africa. Nothing. We will lose jobs and disposable income and Al Gore will become a $gazillionaire. But that is all this crazy liberal scheme will produce.
Then there is the planned destruction of our health care system with the idea of forcing us into government rationed health care, where DC decides who should be treated and who should not. Think that is going to be a positive force on our economy as the government rips out 1/6th of it? The irony is all those doe-eyed youngsters chanting ‘hope & change’ will be the ones footing the biggest part of the bill after seniors. What a just reward for voting on an image instead of the issues and the liberals whacky proposals.
But it gets even worse than this. The economic bubble burst over the sub prime mortgages liberals in Congress pushed through to help the poor (read: unable to afford) buy houses. What ensued was a predatory bonanza where mortgages were let out to millions of people without checks or backing, and then sold to the taxpayers. Who just bailed out all the crooks who lined their pockets and left their mess to collapse the confidence of the markets. Is this liberal congress going to make sure this does not happen again?
Hell no! They are going for more of the same! (H/T Reader Frogg1)
A number of experts believe that aggressive enforcement of the 1970s-era Community Reinvestment Act contributed to the mortgage meltdown, and thus to the greater financial crisis, by requiring financial institutions to lend to unqualified borrowers. Now, the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is responding to that situation by proposing to expand the scope and power of the Community Reinvestment Act.
This morning House Financial Services Committee chairman Rep. Barney Frank held a hearing on H.R. 1479, the “Community Reinvestment Modernization Act of 2009.” The bill’s purpose is “to close the wealth gap in the United States” by increasing “home ownership and small business ownership for low- and moderate-income borrowers and persons of color.” It would extend CRA’s strict lending requirements to non-bank institutions like credit unions, insurance companies, and mortgage lenders. It would also make CRA more explicitly race-based by requiring CRA standards to be applied to minorities, regardless of income, going beyond earlier requirements that applied solely to low- and moderate-income areas.
Barney Frank is insane – that is all I can figure. He is also a socialist, because all he thinks about is playing Robin Hood with other people’s money (the government was the problem in the popular story, but that doesn’t stop Mad Money Frank). He makes drunken sailors look spend thrifty, and sober to boot!
But we are not done yet with the mounting evidence Team Obama and the DC liberals are going to send this economy back down into the tank again. Michael Barone notes other plans in action and in the works, identical to missteps made in the 1930’s:
Then there’s trade protectionism. A week ago Friday, late at night, the Obama administration slapped import tariffs on Chinese tires. The Chinese retaliated by imposing tariffs on auto parts and chickens — take that, United Auto Workers and Tyson Foods! Upshot: American consumers will pay more for tires, and auto-parts and chicken-processing jobs will be at risk.
And more of that may be in store. “The smell of trade war is suddenly in the air,” writes The Wall Street Journal, and Global Trade Alert reports that 130 protectionist measures are ready to be implemented by countries around the world. Are we seeing a repeat of the job-destroying protectionism that followed the Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930? It’s starting to look like it.
Trade wars lead to real wars folks. One way to break and peace is to threaten livelihoods, careers and businesses. That is not all Michael noted, there are the pending tax increases coming next year as the wise Bush tax cuts (which pulled us out of the 9-11 tail spin and through two wars) are set to expire.
All in all, the evidence is building up that the liberals in DC are (a) either the most incompetent group of people this nation has ever seen and their idiotic fantasy policies are going to do needless damage to our economy and ignite international trade wars (and maybe a real one) OR these people are very clever, very smart and are taking the steps anyone would take to create crisis economically and internationally, in the hopes they can exploit those crises to acquire more power. That second idea is in itself dumb as a rock, since this nation is made up of millions of independently minded, capable people who are more than able to throw the bums out of office.
I do not have a clue which is right, it may be a combination, it could be neither. But I will note this, both scenarios assume the American people cling to government to protect them from reality. One is a benign, ignorance driven assumption, the second would be conniving and traitorous. Either way, they are both wrong assumptions, so events will not play out as expected. Reality always brings surprise endings. |
