Mish would have us believe that von Mises acolyte Ron Paul has somehow become mainstream.
Bill Maher has repeatedly offered the more reasonable explanation that, as the Democrats moved to the right, the Republicans moved to the insane asylum. And now, they rub elbows with Mr. Paul.
OK, Mish. If you want to believe that inflation is a relevant problem, or that teabaggers and the Cato Institute represent anything other than a fringe - go for it, amigo. Look (as Obama might say) Paul would have us return to the gold standard - a sure-fire recipe for economic disaster.
The problem is, these fringies are influencing the politics, and have Obama running scared on the deficit. This is like FDR's misguided attempt to balance the budget in 1937, and one of the many reasons I think a slide into an even deeper recession (none dare utter the "D" word) is inevitable.
Consider that during the last decade, when the grotesquely irresponsible policies of George W. Bush brought about the greatest deficits in history, real economic growth was nil. Literally. No gain in stocks. No gain in real property values, no gain in wealth for the typical family, and a continuing decline in real GDP growth.
Understand what this means. A huge deficite and reckless credit policies - actions that should have been highly inflationary - caused no meaningful upside effect, and no inflation, amidst what was generally misconstrued as prosperity. Balancing the budget will take us into the worst of all possible worlds. And - Nolan Finley notwithstanding - Obama does not have the political will to stand up to the right wing on economic issues.
Basically - we're screwed.
Update: More on Deficit hawking from Naked Capitalism. And what I said, only longer, (OK - and smarter) at New Deal 2.0.
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The deficit does not matter during a deflationary cycle. Indeed, the deficit is *good* during a deflationary cycle, because it can be monetized by the Federal Reserve as a mechanism for re-inflating the money supply, since deficit spending goes directly into the pocketbooks of federal employees, individuals receiving unemployment checks and food stamps and etc., and contractors receiving federal money to build shit, which in turn means all their upstream suppliers get that money trickled up to them too.
In short, a "deficit" in a deflationary cycle is JUST ONE WAY TO RE-INFLATE THE CURRENCY BY PRINTING MONEY. And we right now *ARE* in deflation -- the CPI was negative last quarter, though "core" CPI (a subset of CPI) was not.
- Badtux the Economics Penguin
Paul would have us return to the gold standard
Perfidious fiat currency! Bring back Aynnie Rand , Jzb, and....A=A.
Paul's a quack of the first sort--then let's not forget many putative economists actually believe in the Randian-libertarian code (including Greenspan back in the day).
What's amazing is that some putative Demos (or DINOs) still consider Ron Paul, and his libertarian, gold standard schemes sort of "liberal."
Granted, Paul did for some time object to the Iraqi war and BushCo: yet then he more or less said it was a waste of money (which it was for the most part). So Paul's point was merely isolationist, ala Ayn Rand's occasional anti-war rants in the 60s.
Paul is not at all a Democrat, even of traditional Truman sort, but opposes govt. sponsored health care and social programs. He favors a flat tax, and pretty much bare-knuckles capitalism. Then so do other supposed "moderates" like Andrew Sullivan. Of course since Sullivan's g*y, the usual suburban moderate-scab types (like this deluded libertarian fool who runs New Worlds) consider Sullivan a PC democrat etc. That is complete BS.
Sullivan opposes most govt. programs, favors flat tax, and supported Bush and then Ron-zo Paul. He's anti-union. Apart from his little PC pro-g*y rants, Sullivan's hardly any different than the Paul 'tards, or Randians and libertarian quacks.
I've never heard anyone accuse Paul of being a Liberal. I did ridicule some moron for calling Sully a liberal.
But the reichwing has sailed so far off the rational political map, up really does look like down to them.
I think to be libertarian is to be deluded. Lots of technically trained people fall into the trap. It's very logical, but starts in an unreal place. As the compouter guys used to say, Garbage in - garbage out.
Cheers!
JzB
Yes, it's usually low-grade techie sorts--like the New Worlds gang-- who see a chunk of taxes taken out of their paychecks from Tandy Corp. and then decide that Government is Eevil, that taxes infringe on their precious and usually Gott-given Liberty, and that all social programs are scams, etc. They tend to have a great faith in free market economics as well.
The same sort of techies still think like RA Heinlein was a "liberal" as well, notwithstanding his support for Nixon, and hawkish views on 'Nam, his macho space opera, etc.
Tandy-Co-libertarians--sort of dope smoking republicans, really.
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Hey JzB, I've been playing around with some MIDI jazz (I'm a bassist,remember tho' really semi-retired, and play some keys, tho' not exactly Art Tatum), doing some arrangements of a few standards with composition software. Really, quite limited (or shall we say, the tones are fairly cheesy, but a few patches sound nearly acceptable).
countdown see if this works...
(really, the solo's slightly doctored....ie do bass line (took some work really), then insert yr fave block chords, play a little solo, and then adjust notes (tho I don't use autocorrect or mere quantizing).
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