This is the post in which I recognize that the Politico has gone Full Frontal Gruber once again: Come to think of it, the 62 percent of Americans who described the economy as “poor” in a CNN poll a week before the Republican landslide in the midterm elections were also wrong. I guess that sounds elitist. Second-guessing the wisdom of the public may be the last bastion of political correctness; if ordinary people don’t feel good about the economy, then the recovery isn’t supposed to be real. But aren’t the 11 million Americans who have landed new jobs since 2010 and the 10 million Americans who have gotten health insurance since 2013 ordinary Americans? It’s true that wage growth has remained slow, but the overall economic trends don’t jibe with the public’s lousy mood. And the public definitely does get stuff wrong. A Bloomberg poll this month found that 73 percent of Americans think the deficit is getting bigger, while 21 percent think it’s getting smaller and 6 percent aren’t sure. In fact, the deficit has dwindled from about $1.2 trillion in 2009 to less than $500 billion in 2014. My favorite part is the mere 6 percent who admitted ignorance; 73 percent are definitely sure the shrinking deficit is actually growing. You schlubs are just too stupid to understand how great things are and how President Obama is responsible for all the wonderful things. No doubt that certain sections of the economy are recovering. What makes the recovery look strong is that these few sections (oil and gas being one) are doing well enough to offset the general lack of performance in others. When you have been to the bottom, the only way to go is up. What should get credit here is the incredible ability of a capitalistic economy to find ways to create value and prosperity in the face of difficult global economic conditions created by forces from outside the market (i.e. governments). There is only one economic system in the history of the world that has the flexibility, adaptability and resilience to accomplish this monumental feat - and it isnt collectivism. The Politico tacitly acknowledges this by comparing the measurably freer US economy to that of Europe: No one is satisfied with 5.8 percent unemployment, but it’s way better than the 10 percent we had in 2010 or the 11 percent Europe has today. If more socialism and government intervention was the answer, then it would follow that since Europe is now a bastion of democratic socialism, they would be doing better than we are, right? But they arent...by Politicos own admission. Politico also cluelessly states that Obama is wonderful, its just that the press and the GOP who just dont want the good news to get out: The other problem in acknowledging good news, not just for the press but for the public, is that it has come to feel partisan, like an endorsement of whoever occupies the White House. Republican leaders have exacerbated this problem by describing everything Obama has done — his 2009 stimulus package, his 2010 Wall Street reforms, his 2013 tax hikes on high earners, his various anti-pollution regulations aimed at coal-fired power plants, and most of all Obamacare — as “job-killing” catastrophes that would obliterate the economy. It’s hard to point out that the economy is humming along nicely without making those doom-and-gloom predictions sound ill-advised and over-the-top. They never mention that the labor participation rate is the lowest since the Carter years, unemployment insurance, food stamps and disability payments are at historically high levels and that this recovery is the worst performing recovery in the history of the American economy - or that the deficit is down due to record federal tax collections in the middle of a recession, that interest rates are artificially low due to the printing presses at Treasury, that inflation is low because of the way it is measured (as a number of foodstuffs hit historically high prices) or that the reason Obamacare hasnt hit the economy is because its funding was assured by tax collections three years before the redistribution machine was switched on. Thankfully, the GOP takeover of the House in 2010 kept Obama from doing as much damage as he could have done with a willing Congress - the example would be his signature accomplishment of Obamacare when the Democrats had total control - a massive socialist redistribution scheme with no economic value (except to his cronies in the insurance industry who were guaranteed a market). I cheer the recovery of the American economy. Falling energy prices are a Godsend. Several years ago I wrote a multi-part series called Free the Energy and Free The Economy! making the point that if we wanted to kick start the economy, we only need to let the energy sector loose. I dont cheer the President. The devotion of he and his party to Keynesian economics has been a measurable exercise in folly. He has done everything in his power to either prevent a recovery or when his party saw the opportunity to siphon tax dollars off any economic segment that was showing any sign of life, they latched on to it like a swarm of leeches. President Obama is truly living the Chance the Gardner presidency - as the character of Chance achieved success by simply Being There, Obama follows suit as events unfold. The fact is that capitalist economies recover - the speed with which they do is often slowed by intervention and distortions from governments that think such things can be managed. America is, in fact, awesome. The credit for any recovery in any segment of the American economy goes to capitalism, not to central planning by a socialist political party and its titular leadership.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 13:44:54 +0000
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