Thursday, January 29, 2009

 

The Truth is Worse Then Fiction

"For the moment, all is peaceful and quiet. The political class, which loves the unitary European state precisely because it so completely escapes democratic or any other oversight (let alone control), and for whom it acts as a giant pension fund, holds the upper hand for now. But tensions and frustrations in Europe have a history of expressing themselves in nasty ways."

Theodore Dalrymple

# posted by D. W. Eifert @ 8:06 AM 0 comments

Monday, January 26, 2009

 

Stand-up Economics

At the start of a depression, we should still laugh at economics.

# posted by D. W. Eifert @ 9:51 PM 0 comments
 

econothoughts

I do not know what can turn the economy around, if it is possible to be turned around, or if it needs government intervention to turn it around. I do remember studying economics in the 1990s, and the ideas behind a fiscal stimulus from government spending were pretty much dead. Professor Mankiw at Harvard has a list of economists that are reminding us that a fiscal stimulus most likely will fail.

Skeptics of the stimulus might be wrong, but we are not cranks. Not when the list includes Robert Barro and Nobel prize winners Robert Lucas and Gary Becker. I have definitely been in worse company before.

# posted by D. W. Eifert @ 9:25 PM 0 comments
 

Stimulus for what?

When I read comments like these I start wondering if we need a new website: FuckTheStimulus.com.

STEPHANOPOULOS: We also heard from Congressman Boehner coming out of the meeting today that again a lot of that spending doesn't even meet the same test you just talked about right now. Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?

PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.


# posted by D. W. Eifert @ 2:36 AM 0 comments

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