tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post9196914840167659179..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Obama and Bernanke: Perfect Together?Stuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-10902028375666936082013-02-18T13:01:53.362-08:002013-02-18T13:01:53.362-08:00I actually like it when nothing gets done. It'...I actually like it when nothing gets done. It's when things get done by these self-proclaimed polymaths in Washington that things go awry. No ones freedom is safe when Congress is in session, or with any of the other shenanigans that pass for policy-making in the District of Columbia, given all the executive orders and unchecked bureaucratic initiatives.<br /><br />I'm glad to hear you've read Schlaes' work. Her timing with that book was amazing.<br /><br />You know my feelings about the Fourth Estate and its failure to function. Again, all I ask is that journalists be skeptics about everyone and everything. Show some curiosity, for goodness sake! It is embarrassing to watch them in their vainglorious sanctimony.<br /><br />TipAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-24403228947370126292013-02-18T12:49:37.073-08:002013-02-18T12:49:37.073-08:00Thanks, Tip. I have read Amity Shlaes. It is a pow...Thanks, Tip. I have read Amity Shlaes. It is a powerful antidote to the commonly held myth about the New Deal. Since BHO seems to have modeled his policies on the New Deal, mistakenly assuming that it worked, it is relevant.<br /><br />I admire Kotkin because he is a Democrat with intellectual integrity. So many political commentators are, as you say, completely dishonest. No wonder nothing gets done.Stuart Schneidermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-73102397555295644652013-02-18T10:43:28.919-08:002013-02-18T10:43:28.919-08:00Stuart, I don't know if you've read the bo...Stuart, I don't know if you've read the book "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Schlaes. If you have not, you must. It's a markets-based critique of the Great Depression. An excellent read, very accessible. One of her main points is that New Deal policies made the Depression last longer, and that's because of the incessant political, regulatory and legal meddling in the economy. It was intrusive and pervasive, leaving capital on the sidelines because there was no visibility about where resources could be effectively allocated. Washington was a substantial part of the problem because there was all this activity, with no end. This activity was championed at all levels by idealists who thought they were acting in the public interest, but were deaf and blind to the real impact on private sector behavior. For the first time, it elevated the government as a powerful actor in the economy in its own right, challenging the private sector for power and influence. Government was no longer a referee for all, but an interest of its own, targeted at specific constituencies for benefit or ill. It subjectively picked winners and losers, with no mind to consequence. This was new in U.S. politics. It stole hope from the "Forgotten Man," the citizen who sought to get by without relief, who in the end got screwed for an entire decade.<br /><br />Sound familiar?<br /><br />I fear we are living through this all again. The impact of government activity is very elusive an complex, because the interference is running in the background. Obama is a vindictive Chicago thug, so business leaders are wary to voice a position. Instead of investing in what's next, industry silently sits on a huge cash hoard (held mostly offshore), waiting to see how things pan out, reducing our economic future to a big game of chicken.<br /><br />The other piece few are talking about is how the law has ceased to be a tool of a stable, civil society and is now becoming a tool of megalomaniacs and plutocrats. Lawyers supposedly venerate the law, but this emerging corruption of the law will increasingly erode respect for the law. It's become a tool of the clever interests rather than a structure for a stable, functioning society. Laws, regulations and rules have become so Byzantine in their complexity and they are arbitrarily applied. That's why small banks and businesses are screwed... they can't dedicate resources to an army of lawyers like Citi and GE can.<br /><br />Kotkin sees what I wish more journalists would: an insular, decadent Washington. It's out of control, and is consuming more and more of our national output. At the head of it is Obama, an elitist and inexperienced leader who is fundamentally dishonest about his operating philosophy. It doesn't work, and never has.<br /><br />TipAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com