Obama's, I mean, Clinton's Economic History

from a blog I follow closely (Mankiw's Blog)

Clinton now Says: The 'Big Things' Never Included his Tax-cut Vow

Seeking to explain why he is backtracking on a campaign promise to cut taxes for the middle class, President-elect Bill Clinton said Thursday that the plan was never a major theme in his race for the White House.

Mr. Clinton, speaking at a news conference a day after saying he would have to "revisit" his tax-cut plan, said Americans voted for him because of the "big things" he wanted to do.

The middle-class tax cut, he said, was not among them.

He said he was "absolutely mystified" that the news media had perceived it as a major pledge. In interviews Wednesday, Mr. Clinton said that, because of worsening deficit projections, "I have to put everything back on the table."

Mr. Clinton spoke throughout the campaign of the need to redress declining middle-class incomes during the 1980s. He proposed a tax cut for the middle class nearly a year ago, in New Hampshire, and repeated the pledge frequently.

But in the weeks since his election, two things have changed. The government's estimate of growth of the federal budget deficit over the next five years has grown about $60 billion. Also, the new team of Clinton economic advisers has apparently made new calculations and concluded that the tax cut idea is not tenable if Mr. Clinton wants to reduce the deficit and also move ahead with an "investment" program to revive the economy.

Obamabubble- Powell Succumbs!

How does one define a "bubble"? Well, Warren Buffett made news last week when he spoke of being greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy. Interesting?? My favorite place in the world is Churchill's War Rooms in London. If you haven't been or lived in the UK, you need to fly there just to see this museum. This museum is where Churchill lived during the bombing in the 40's. What is so amazing to me is that Churchill was considered a 'cook' by many of the people of his times. His approval ratings were often in the 30-40's. He only lasted one term before he was booted out...His daughter writes a magnificent letter to him explaining why they lost the election after the war. I will not ruin it, but you must read it. When you spend 3 hours in a museum and read every bit of material in the museum, this is what you come up with. Lady Thatcher, remember her? How about Reagan, Lincoln, TR, etc.?

Where any of these people who were 'transformational' figures called 'transformational' leaders before or during their time. Not if you actually pay attention to history. How does Colin decide who is or isn't transformational. What a joke!!! I am calling this the Obamabubble. People have lost their minds when it comes to this guy. He has no experience, wants to raise taxes, and negotiate with foreign leaders who are terrorists and people are dancing in the streets.

This is 'irrational exuberance' all over again. He is speaking of the winds of change. Man, does it smell like, well, you get the picture. Barry will go down as the worst president of all time. Here's why. Clinton would have been a fine president, but BO will be the worst. He has no choice to but to overpromise and underdeliver. The expectations are SOO high that he can only fail. If he overdelivers, what is he delivering? Government incompetence and 'give-aways'. Government problems that will only get worse. Socialized medicine will go up their with social security and medicare/medicaid as the biggest threat to US security. Thanks Barry!

Hmmm- Did anyone watch that debate last week

Read this brief summary about Milton Friedman's analysis of the Great Depression:
(www.fee.org)


After reading this, sit-back and think about Barry's "plan". People love "plans", like it's the A-Team all over again. Hey guys, little secret, some plans just don't work...


In the decades following Friedman and Schwartz’s work economists started examining other government-policy failures in the aftermath of the crash. They have found an abundant supply of them. Here are several key examples of these bad policies: 1) In response to a sharp decrease in tax revenues in 1930 and 1931 (caused by a slowdown of economic activities), the federal government passed the largest peacetime tax increase in the history of the United States, which clearly applied the brakes on any recovery that could have taken place; 2) the federal government also passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930, substantially increasing tariffs and leading to retaliatory restrictions by trading partners, which resulted in a considerable decrease in demand for U.S. exports and a further slowdown in production (not to mention a loss of mutually advantageous division of labor); 3) the federal government also instituted all sorts of “public works” programs, beginning under Herbert Hoover and increasing dramatically under FDR; the programs removed hundreds of thousands of people from the labor market and engaged them in economically wasteful activities, such as carving faces of dead presidents into the sides of a mountain, preventing or delaying necessary labor-market adjustments; 4) another federal policy that prevented (labor and other) market adjustments was the price and wage controls enacted under the National Recovery Administration and in effect from 1933 until 1935 (when ruled unconstitutional); this policy massively distorted relative market prices, impairing their ability to function as guides to entrepreneurs; 5) the Fed was not blameless after 1933 either. It increased bank-reserve requirements in three steps in 1936 and 1937, leading to another significant decrease in the money supply. The result was the 1937–38 recession within the Depression, adding insult to injury.

New Blog

I want to thank everyone for starting to read my new blog. I hope to make it fun and interesting as well as give some political and stock picking advice. Anyone tired of whacko reporters screaming and yelling every step along the way 'creating' panics along the way, might like my insightful analysis of politics. The same people who are telling us this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression were telling us in 2000, that Nasdaq 5000 and Dow 12,000, with multiples of about 200x and 40x, were just minor market adjustments. Remember 2000. When President Clinton left office, the Nasdaq was at 5k, the Dow at 12k, we were in "peactime" (Remember the press used to tell us that EVERYONE loved and respected the United States) according to the 'experts'. In the following two years, the bubble burst, we had the worst attack in the history of the USA from those 'people' who loved us, ridiculous accounting scandals, etc. Amazingly enough, people blamed Republicans for that mess. Huh? Anything that happens bad in the US will inevitably be blamed on those bad/shameful republicans.

Remember how great everyone thought things were in 2000, well I'm now seeing how 'terrible' things are now. Could they be wrong again? You can decide.

The best way to learn is to think back in your own lifetime critically and not make excuses. If I were to tell people on September 12, 2001 that the following 2,600 days would leave us without an attack, solid economic growth and low unemployment, most people would put Bush's approval rating at 70%, instead it's about 30%. I read many ridiculous blogs, some very good blogs, and some mediocre. I didn't see ONE mention of 9/11 this year. Amazing how it has become an afterthought. NYC wasn't somber at all on this anniversary. I knew people would forget.

Let me leave you with this. Would you care about the financial 'crises' if a major American city was hit by a WMD. Maybe you would blame Bush, b/c 9/11 happended bc of President Bush- oh wait we weren't in Iraq then. Hmmm, it becomes so confusing when you use a President as a scapegoat instead of being a critical thinker.

Be back tomorrow to talk our way thru this financial crises.