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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (115243)	6/12/2012 9:42:03 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 149317

Spend money to make money. Is that your formula for success? LOL. Platitudes don't make for good return on investment. You think foodstamps and welfare have good ROI? Nope. Do you think Social Security, Medicare, and the Military have good ROI? Absolutely not. That is where the deficits are largely coming from and the increases have all been on Obama's watch. So where we're spending money on deficits will not result in increased growth. Not in a liberal's wildest dreams. Socialism is a one way ticket to loss of freedom, overbearing government control, and overburdened taxpayers. Obama seems to be embracing all of the bad things about Europe and few of the good things. Time to put Obama's Presidency out of its misery and elect someone else. Romney isn't a better alternative either. So what we need is a third party candidate. Maybe I'll vote for Ron Paul as a write in candidate. ---------------- Have No Faith In Socialists’ Commitment To Reform dailycapitalist.com By Jeff Harding, on June 12th, 2012 Voter and leftist politician resistance to so-called “austerity” will result in backsliding of many socialist governments to liberal reforms. From the Eurozone to the BRICs, a current meme among politicians and the press is that austerity is not the path to economic growth and recovery, but rather suspension of reforms and continued government spending is the proper policy. This is happening in France, Italy, Greece, Spain, and India. As to the Eurozone, it can only lead to failure and breakup as Germany will refuse to bail them out. Countries like India, Russia, and perhaps Brazil are facing weakening economies and their commitment to liberal reforms is weakening. This will result in economic stagnation and political instability. A report from S&P today that suggests India as a BRIC, with a weakening economy, may be backsliding on reforms thus jeopardizing its already weak BBB sovereign rating. It also says it may be the first BRIC to experience this, but perhaps Brazil, Russia and China may join them if they follow India’s example. Another story reported that France’s new prime minister, François Hollande, may, for example, seek to roll back the recently raised retirement age (62) back to 60 years. Much of what is happening politically in Europe and in some of the BRICs is indeed backsliding as socialists like Hollande have taken office. In India the opposition Congress Party is flexing its populist-socialist muscles. Greece’s citizens are massively rebelling against “austerity” and are (most likely) voting in radical socialists (on Sunday we’ll get the election results). Italy’s Monti is facing opposition to austerity measures by opposition parties and labor unions. Spain seems rudderless. These regimes and politicians blame their problems on the ”failure” of austerity and external powers demanding reforms. There is no doubt that these countries need to get their fiscal houses in order to reduce the burdens on taxpayers. But there is more to recovery than just austerity. They need capitalism and capital from real savings, and stable, liberal governments. But there is more. Unfortunately many of them do not have strong entrepreneurial traditions and have large bureaucracies whose jobs are to thwart entrepreneurs and employers at every turn. India suffered from almost 50 years of planned socialism which has left a vast bureaucracy whose powers are only slightly diminished. Italy has suffered from guild-like unions for centuries which inhibit a free labor market and discourage entrepreneurs. France is proudly welfare-socialist. The point is that while austerity is essential for recovery, the problem is much deeper and lies in the socialist past of these countries. This has serious implications for the eurozone and their current economic crisis. If these regimes do not undertake serious economic and fiscal reforms the eurozone will fail. It is highly unlikely that Germany will agree to finance the continued spending and monetary expansion of eurozone laggards’ governments and central banks. To put it simply, these socialist economies are running out of German money. India’s economy, along with Brazil’s and China’s, is sinking. They all have strong socialist traditions with powerful central governments which attempt to “run” these economies. On the other hand, China, and to an extent, Brazil, have, historically, strong entrepreneurial cultures, and the liberalization of the activities of entrepreneurs, allowed despite an overlay of government control, has allowed entrepreneurs to take risks and bring growth to their countries. India and Russia, on the other hand, are probably the weakest entrepreneurial cultures mired in Byzantine-proportion bureaucracies, and further controls and less liberalization of their economies will set them back a hundred years. Do not put any faith in the ability of socialist governments to reform unless their voters are firmly behind reform. With majorities of voters living off of these governments, that is unlikely. These governments have consistently misunderstood and underestimated the seriousness of the post-2008 bust or their underlying structural economic problems. The eurozone is in an impossible situation founded on a bad idea. It is unlikely they will print (money) as a solution unless Angela Merkel has a brain transplant. Fiscal union seems to be a faraway dream. That leaves break-up or bankruptcies as the alternative. The BRICs appear to be on a knife’s edge as well. They have survived and then succeeded only because they liberalized their economies. But their leaders appear to be uncommitted to liberalization and things could easily go either way. This is a time to hold your breath and prepare for the shocks that will result from the consequences of socialism.