When Red Tape and Bureaucracy Get in the Way of Good Ideas

Captain Capitalism rants and we’d all better listen:

It’s the assholes and jerks who make the tough decisions, blow the whistles and eat yes-men for breakfast who [are] going to be your next boss…that is unless of course you would prefer the company to go bankrupt and have no job at all.

Obama and the Stimulus are Losing Popularity – It’s the Republicans Fault!

Joan Walsh goes out of her way to blame the Republicans for President Obama’s falling popular support and the increasing opposition to the 900 billion dollar stimulus package.

Yes indeed, the party that does not control the presidency nor have a majority in either House of Congress is at fault for the Democrats inability to properly communicate the message of spend, spend, spend:

Obama is stumbling in the stimulus debate — and public support is dropping — because for 30 years Republicans have lied about the role of government.

Krugman Keynesian nonsense

The most recent Nobel laureate in economics, Paul Krugman is deceiving the public by saying that the rules of scarcity no longer apply during a recession. Robert P. Murphy sets the record straight:

No matter the scenario, government spending channels resources away from the private sector. Even if the project employs workers who were previously unemployed, this still retards the genuine, private-sector recovery from the slump, because that is one less worker available to be hired by an entrepreneur.

If the government wants the economy to recover as quickly as possible, the solution is simple: cut spending, cut taxes, stop inflating the money supply, and stop changing the rules every three days. But this solution won’t be adopted, since it doesn’t allow the politicians to pose as generous saviors.

The bottom line is that government interventions prolong recessions. Any “idle resources” that are consumed by temporary government stimulus are delayed from contributing to any real economic recovery.

Conference Board of Canada spews out nonsense about the recession

How can personal frugality and responsible household spending be bad for the economy? The chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada is spewing out the tired old Keynesian lines. I guess he must think that putting on a smiley happy face is a replacement for economic policy too:

The survey found Canadians say they are financially worse off today than six months ago and expect to be even worse off in six months.

Hodgson said there are sound reasons for Canadians to be depressed about the future, but added that part of the current gloom is psychological since the country has yet to see the deep job losses and economic collapse that has occurred in the United States, Japan and Europe.

“People are now translating that into, ’Geez, maybe I do have to tighten my belt and be more cautious in my spending during this Christmas period,’ ” he said.

“Unfortunately, that just makes things worse. It pulls more demand out of the economy and will make it even harder for the economy to rebound.”

Consumer confidence in both Canada and the U.S. has been plummeting in the wake of the stock market meltdown, ongoing credit crisis and slumping economies.

If reckless spending and loose credit is bad for the individual then it is bad for the economy. Period. To lay blame on consumers for tightening their belt is nonsense.

A Bright-side of the Economic Downturn

The mighty bear might have some trouble flexing it’s muscles and scaring it’s neighbors in this chilly economic climate:

The bleak scenario would mark a rapid unraveling of Russia’s oil-fueled economic gains over the past eight years, during which time the government has paid down most of its foreign debt and built up a vast stockpile of international reserves.

[...]

Russia, which grew at over 8 percent last year, is facing a severe slowdown in growth, and possibly even recession next year, analysts say. Torrid figures released earlier this week showed that industrial output had plunged 10.8 percent in November from the previous month, signaling a dramatic slowdown in the final quarter.

Bernanke keeps flooding the money market

When the price of the US dollar is approaching zero, the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke reveals a bitter truth about the futility of monetary policy:

The U.S. economy “will probably remain weak for a time,” even if the credit crisis eases, Bernanke said yesterday in his speech. While the Fed can’t push interest rates below zero, “the second arrow in the Federal Reserve’s quiver — the provision of liquidity — remains effective,” he said.

Maybe eventually — after the Fed prolongs the recession and fuels malinvestments — more Americans will wake up to the fact that inflating the money supply is not about stimulating the economy nor about helping the public. It is all about giving new money to the banks first. In Canada, monetary inflation goes unnoticed or without debate.

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