Saturday, January 10, 2009
'Mr. Cool's Centrist Gamble'
Hub Blog was feeling a little better about Obama's economic plan while reading the first paragraphs of this piece (some are actually beginning to question whether spending for spending's sake is really that smart) but then I read the following:
Hub Blog was feeling a little better about Obama's economic plan while reading the first paragraphs of this piece (some are actually beginning to question whether spending for spending's sake is really that smart) but then I read the following:
Mr. Obama’s aides said he did not intend to unveil a detailed formal proposal but rather to allow Congress to fill in the outline that he has proposed.Hub Blog's reaction: Oh my God. He's going to let Congress fill in the blanks? Oh my freakin' God. ... Then I read about how food stamps -- food stamps -- are being touted as great 'bang for the buck' economic stimulators. My question: Is that before or after Stop & Shop dollars are shipped to Royal Ahold in the Netherlands? ... I also was intitially encouraged by David Ignatius's 'Mr. Cool's Centrist Gamble' column, but became depressed by the end. Maybe it's time to reiterate Hub Blog's emerging, groundbreaking economic theory:
Supply-side tax cuts work somewhat well during mild to medium level recessions, while a dose of Keynesian spending works somewhat well during more severe times. The irony is that excesses by supply-siders sometimes create the conditions for Keynesianism, while the excesses of Keynesians create the conditions for supply-side.Are we already at the excesses-of-Keynesians stage so soon after the excesses-of-supply-siders stage? ... Reader BK writes in to remind me I voted for Obama:
O-W-N I-T, baby. In fact, start swallowing it as if you were drinking water through a fire hose. I'd say this appointment, and that of Anne-Marie Slaughter to Dep. Sec. State for Policy & Planning are the worst yet. With more heartburn and indigestion to come . . .
Still B-b-b-big on Hub Blog -- especially this insightful door-opening -- but these two appointments will be net negatives for American Liberty, American Security, and American Exceptionalism.
