Thursday, January 29, 2009
Leaps and Bounds of Faith
I saw Jim Cramer on "Hardball" yesterday. And, no, it wasn't at all encouraging, folks. This fellow has absolutely no confidence that Obama's stimulus package is going to do what it's supposed to do. He points to 1) the fact that only a small percentage of it will be spent this year and 2) the equally disappointing fact that a relatively small percentage of it is actually going to be spent on what Obama initially promised - namely infrastructure (instead it's going to be spent on a hodge-podge of other special interests). Hell, even Matthews, who, up until this point appeared to be an Obama true believer, is questioning the effectiveness of this strategy. Ditto, the generally bi-partisan Ben Stein. I don't know, folks, it looks to me like Obama may be doing little else than mirroring the Bush/Paulsen (hardly a couple of pikers there, huh?) game-plan here. And, yes, THAT I do find dispiriting............................................................P.S. Correct me if I'm wrong here, folks, but didn't Japan attempt a similar strategy in the early 90s with their recession - and it failed? I seem to have heard something about that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Hell Jim Cramer was just as clueless as everyone else as the economy was tanking and now he's a voice of reason? Matthews wouldn't make news if he agreed and you didn't really use bi-partisan and Ben Stein in the same sentence did you? Only if you compare him to Limbaugh.
Yes, Stein is a Republican. But 1)he's fair (I've seen him hammer the right many times) and 2)he's an economic populist (i.e., "the rich pay way too little in taxes"). Cramer? Matthews? I don't know, I have a sneaky suspicion that you'd probably find something wrong with anybody who dares to criticize this president (who I also voted for , btw).
No, I have problems with the people who think that the economic policies of the past, that got us in to this problem, are the solution. Trickle down has not and will never work. Manipulating the interest rates has stopped working. Why not try something new? Getting people working so they can afford or are willing to spend some money so businesses can hire more people makes sense. Giving businesses tax breaks on the hopes that they will hire more people to make stuff that nobody is buying does not.
Sure there is some pork, just like in every other bill, but the vast majority of the stimulus gets people to work rebuilding the infrastructure, repairing our aging electrical grid, (ie. Kentucky), and creating green jobs for the future.
The stimulus is an investment in America and I hope it pays off. I hope the pork disappears in exchange for more infrastructure improvements, but if it doesn't I don't want to throw out the good just for the sake of getting rid of a little bad.
Look for Senators Nelson (D) and Collins (R), two moderates, to lead the charge here. The thing may still be salvagable. But like I said on another post, the Japanese tried this same approach in the nineties and it failed. I hope tyhat it works for us.
Post a Comment