THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 170, July 5, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
NO MYSTERY TO NON-RECOVERY
By Dennis T. Avery
ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY IN THE U.S.A.: THE AMERICAN ECONOMY CURRENTLY IN A STATE OF NON-RECOVERY --
ITS CAUSE & CURE -- STATIST & NEAR-STATIST PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATIONS WHICH, IN LEAGUE WITH
CONGRESSIONAL MAJORITIES, HAVE VIOLATED THE LAW OF SUPPLY & DEMAND -- THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF PRESIDENTS
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, GEORGE WALKER BUSH, FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, & HERBERT CLARK HOOVER -- THE
HOME MORTGAGE CRISIS OF 2008 & ITS CONTINUING IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY -- OBAMA'S STIMULUS FAILURE & THE
SOARING FEDERAL DEBT -- THE NEED FOR U.S. GOVERNMENT FISCAL, ECONOMIC, ENERGY, & ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES
THAT ENCOURAGE, RATHER THAN HINDER, PRIVATE BUSINESS INVESTMENT & ECONOMIC GROWTH
FULL STORY:
I’m tired of reading about the American economy’s “mysterious” non-recovery. The lack of recovery isn’t mysterious
at all. The economy hates uncertainty, and President Barack Hussein Obama has introduced more economic uncertainty
than we’ve had since Presidents Herbert Clark Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt started violating the law of
supply and demand 80 years ago.
Our present crisis was caused by federal policies demanding that banks make bad housing loans to people who
couldn’t afford their mortgages. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s $500 billion in mortgage losses still haven’t been
added to federal red ink totals — and both are still out there incurring more losses. Consequently we don’t know what
a house is worth, now or tomorrow.
Obama doubled the uncertainty about President George W. Bush’s costly Troubled Assets Relief Program — spending
nearly a billion dollars in big-city Democratic “stimulus” gifts that didn’t create any real jobs. (Neither did Roosevelt’s
“pump-priming” in the 1930s.) After TARP, came the Democrats’ massive federal budget increase, sending our national
debt into the stratosphere for at least a decade to come. How can we possibly pay for this without stealing investment
from the private sector?
Since the stimulus failure and the soaring debt, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geitner, keeps demanding still another
massive stimulus, without even a clear idea where he’d target renewed debt-spending. Democratic Senator Harry Reid
recently jumped on his bandwagon. President Obama would sign whatever the Democrats could pass on Capitol Hill.
Nobody understands Obamacare yet either — but it will impact one of the biggest and fastest-growing U.S. industries.
The 1400 waivers granted so far make us wonder whether every existing private-sector health care program in the
country will be dumped into the federal lap. The similar Massachusetts health-care program has ramped up government
health-care costs without covering many more people or reducing emergency room visits.
Our President keeps touting the wonders of Green Jobs, but, so far, most of those have been created in China. Even
companies he’s used as press-event backdrops have gone belly-up. Meanwhile, the global temperatures haven’t
increased for the last 15 years. How long, O Lord, before we admit the climate future is uncertain — as it always has
been?
Our Environmental Protection Agency’s new limits on coal-fired power plants are likely to boost U.S. electric bills
sharply in 2014 — as the first round of Obama’s promised carbon dioxide emission cuts. He’s threatened coal
companies with bankruptcy. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said we needed gasoline prices as high as Europe’s — or
about $8 per gallon — to prevent a global warming we aren’t getting. The Feds have now shut down coal and oil
wherever they could, the better to get gas at least back above $4 a gallon.
What will electricity and gasoline cost five years from today? Those are very basic uncertainties. The public is
ambivalent about giving up fossil fuels, but they already see it will be very expensive. British “energy poverty” will
more than double, especially since we’re all supposed to keep slashing fossil fuel use until we reach zero.
People think Franklin Roosevelt “corrected” Herbert Hoover’s policies and ended the Depression. Wrong. Both
Hoover and FDR were statists. Hoover gave us tariff wars, government wage controls, an uncertain fiscal policy, and
big spending on “infrastructure.” Roosevelt drew praise for his constant “bold, persistent, experimentation.” Both
gave us high tax increases, even bigger budget deficits — and more uncertainty. Job creation came at the price of the
Second World War, with its millions of deaths and the devastation of Europe.
Why would anyone investing today expect profits in America or Europe? China is a better bet — and more of the
world’s investors are making that bet.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He
was formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable
Global Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years. Readers may write Avery at P.O. Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421;
send him email at cgfi@hughes.net; or comment on www.cgfi.org.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity