The Economist's Cookbook

I love how many politicians in modern politics talk about how progressive their ideas are. Well this of course begs the question: Progressing toward what exactly?

Barack Obama just helped me to answer this question. Allow me to elaborate a bit. Here is a recent Wall Street Journal article about Obama's plan for the economy.

Allow me to respond. Keynesian Economics DOES NOT WORK. Those pretty ISLM curves that you draw and that money that you arbitrarily create and then spend on public works do not create long term growth in the economy and while we might see a slight bump in the short run markets, we will see the distortion of government action in the markets have a long term negative effect.

I don't understand this idea. FDR's presidency should have been more than enough evidence for even the Left to admit that the idea of government 'fixing' the economy but simply creating worthless fiat money and then buying up goods and services that could have been used by consumers is somehow going to make our lives better off. This is ridiculous. If anything the simple idea of deficit spending with money that we don't have will heavily distort various markets and when the Federal Reserve tries to inject money into the economy through open market operations to target inflation then we get additional distortions all the way through the loanable funds market.

The Austrians won the Socialist Calculation Debate! F.A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and their intellectual followers showed that the planning of an economy even on a small scale is something that central planners cannot effectively or even realistically achieve.
Here is the other part of this article that pisses me the hell off:

Sen. Obama cited new economic forces to explain what appears like a return to an older-style big-government Democratic platform skeptical of market forces. "Globalization and technology and automation all weaken the position of workers," he said, and a strong government hand is needed to assure that wealth is distributed more equitably.

WHAT THE HELL SENATOR? Have you ever taken an Economics course or are all your decisions made for you by "economic advisers" that are nothing more than Leftist stooges for the ideas of socialism? Globalization is doing more to raise the quality of life for people in the third world than any sort of aid program could even think about. Now which part are you opposed to, freedom or the third world? You're either a fascist or a racist now.

As to automation... this is even more absurd! Yes Senator, lets go back to hand assembling cars. That made cars so affordable for everyone. As I recall it was the Ford Model T which was built on an assembly line that made those cars affordable for the everyday man. That technology helps to reduce the costs of production which in turn reduces the cost to consumer in a competitive market.

And I don't care about income inequality. Those funds go into the loanable funds market or into the underwriting for other companies to continue to make our lives better. Income inequality is a fact of life. And if the government would stop propping the rich up with protections against free trade, we wouldn't have some of the inequality. The rich are the driving force in the economy and we should THANK THEM for the jobs they helped to create.

Workers of the world unite ... for Barack. As for me? Galt's Gulch looks like it's becoming a realistic possibility.

Thus is the death of liberty greeted ... to thunderous applause.