THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 11, January 11, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
PUT YOUR BET ON STUPIDITY
By Alan Caruba
GOVERNMENTAL ACTION TO COPE WITH THE MAJOR RECESSION WE ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING: MOST PEOPLE
BETTING ON THE STUPIDITY & CUPIDITY OF AMERICA'S NATIONAL LEADERS TO ENSURE THAT THE RECESSION GETS MUCH
WORSE -- PREVIOUS U.S. GOVERNMENT EFFORTS TO EFFECT SOME CONTROL OVER THE ECONOMY, WHILE, AT THE SAME
TIME, RUNNING IT INTO THE GROUND -- THE CURRENT FINANCIAL & ECONOMIC CRISIS: IDIOTS & LIARS IN THE U.S.
GOVERNMENT HAVE MANAGED TO PLUNGE US INTO A RECESSION THAT COULD TURN INTO A FULL-FLEDGED
DEPRESSION, & ALL THE FAILED POLICIES OF THE NEW DEAL ERA ARE BEING TOUTED AS THE ANSWER TO OUR PRESENT
DEBACLE
FULL STORY:
We are well into a major recession, and I think most people are betting on the stupidity and cupidity of our nation’s
leaders, elected and appointed, to ensure that it happens. One need only look at previous efforts to effect some control
over the economy, while, at the same time, running it into the ground.
From the day — August 15, 1971 — that President Richard Milhous Nixon took the nation off the gold standard, detaching
the dollar from the enduring value of gold, America became a place where the dollar was worth whatever anyone
thought it was worth. It’s a lot like those holiday and post-Christmas sales, where a sweater priced at $50 prior to the
onslaught of the financial meltdown, was priced down to $15. Same sweater, different value. Two suits, one free was the
offer of a local retailer.
As columnist Robert J. Samuelson recently wrote:
“We have a $14 trillion economy. The idea that Presidents
can control it lies between an exaggeration and an illusion.”
Samuelson cited Nixon’s imposition in 1971 of wage and price controls, in part, to prevent inflation from jeopardizing his
reelection.
“The economy boomed in 1972. But the controls were a
time-delayed disaster. When they were removed,
inflation exploded to 12 percent in 1974.”
President James Earl Carter was an even greater disaster while he occupied the Oval Office. His administration imposed
credit controls to squelch the raging inflation from the Nixon administration.
“The result was a short recession that helped seal Carter’s
defeat, along with his failure to face down the Iranians who
had taken U.S. diplomats hostage."
Like the incoming President-elect, Carter hated the oil industry, imposing a “windfall profits” tax on it. And he even had
solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. The result was to severely impact our domestic oil industry in
ways that has rendered the U.S. more independent than before on foreign oil. When President Ronald Wilson Reagan
took office, he cut taxes and instituted spending restraints. He also had the solar panels removed.
So where are we today? In October, 2008, at the end of the budget year, the Congressional Budget Office released its
latest estimates, concluding that a record $438 billion deficit had been racked up by Congress, fully $25 billion more than
for fiscal 2004. The office anticipated that President-elect Barack Hussein Obama will have to scale back campaign pledges
because he will inherit a likely deficit for 2009 that will exceed $500 billion.
At this point, we are virtually talking about Monopoly money and make believe houses and hotels. Some people like
Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, among others, should be on their way to jail for misleading the American people regarding
the insane practices of the quasi-governmental entities, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
To give you another idea of how deeply in debt the nation is, the Congressional Research Service recently revealed that
the total value of the bailouts undertaken by the federal government in 2008 exceeded the combined cost of every major
war the United States has ever fought!
In November, 2008, the Cato Institute released a report by Lawrence H. White, a distinguished professor of economics,
an author of The Theory of Monetary Institutions, among other books. How Did We Get into this Financial
Mess? was the rather blunt title of the report. The brief answer is that our government, Congress, the White House,
the Federal Reserve, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, thanks to misguided policies and sometimes flagrantly bad practices,
are responsible for the mess.
“The actual causes of our financial troubles were unusual
monetary policy moves and novel federal regulatory
interventions. These poorly chosen public policies
distorted interest rates and asset prices, diverted loanable
funds into the wrong investments, and twisted normally
robust financial institutions into unsustainable positions.”
Got that? Idiots and liars running our government have managed to plunge Americans into the onset of a recession that
could turn into a full-fledged depression. And, dear reader, it just gets worse because all the failed policies of the
Franklin Delano Roosevelt era are being touted as the answer to our present debacle.
Such steps as have been taken thus far, the dumping of billions into various banks and insurance companies without a
scintilla of transparency or the demand to know what they were doing with the money, quelled the growing panic, but
Congress is backing away from more of the same.
At least in Great Britain, the government insisted the money transfer came with the demand that their banks actually lend
it. So far, our banks have used the money to buy other banks. As to their lending practices, no one in government seems
to have any oversight, despite the fact that it is our public funds that have been placed at their disposal.
The notion that the federal government should bailout Detroit’s auto industry is too crazy for words. If one takes the
United Auto Workers out of the equation, the normal course of events for a failing business is to put it into bankruptcy,
reorganize it, and see if it can return to profitability. If it can’t, it is allowed to fail.
Indeed, stupidity or just indifference was the order of the day when the head of the Security and Exchange Commission
had to admit his agency had paid scant attention to complaints about the hedge fund run by Bernard Madoff, whose
losses are estimated to be fifty billion.
The cliché is that you get the government you deserve and Americans have been blissfully and ignorantly voting most
incumbents back into office for years. In Pennsylvania, after calling his constituents “rednecks” and “racists”, John
Murtha, was returned to office.
So, if you are calculating the odds that the White House and Congress will find a sensible, measured, and responsible
way to cure the current financial crisis, the smart money is on zero.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s most recent book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press. Books
previously authored by Caruba include A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam, The United Nations Versus the United States: The
UN's Plan to Control Planet Earth, and America: A Nation Without Borders -- A Pocket Guide to Immigration Issues.
© Alan Caruba 2009
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity