“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you.”
--Vice President Joe Biden, July 2009
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6 comments:
I'm not a fan, and I can't afford to spend money to keep 'us' from going bankrupt. If that's what 'they' say, I don't want anything to do with 'them'.
Unfortunately for the usual dogma, he's right. Depressionary economics work differently than 'regular' economics because it has to deal with the 'paradox of thrift'. When everyone stops spending - corporations and individuals - a negative feedback loop is created whereby more and more jobs are cut meaning spending is cut meaning more jobs are cut, etc. Just as the government is the lender of last resort, in such situations it also has to be the spender of last resort. This is why the New Deal was initially effective and why WWII finally ended the Great Depression - the New Deal faltered because once the market and the economy bounced back, the government quickly tried to return to normal, which busted the whole endeavor and set recovery back 5+ years.
Of course, the problem has been that we have been living beyond our means in the fat times and not saving, not paying down debt (nationally, corporately, and individually). We are already in debt, which is not the ideal place to be when you need a spender of last resort. All along, comments like Biden's (and the economists he is parroting) have been talking about the necessity both of increased government spending (and debt) as well as the equally important necessity of reigning in those extraordinary measures and to cut back what we thought was normal before (we have to cut deficit and entitlement spending, and start saving more as individuals).
Joey Pluggs is a dangerous fool.
And since Biden has been consistently on the wrong side of history over the last 30 years… his DNC-vaunted foreign policy “experience” has little value… this aparatchik doesn’t appear to have learned a thing.
He opposed every step of Reagan’s defense buildup that won the cold war, and later proposed surrender and 3-way partition in Iraq. He frequently appears to have no idea what he’s talking about, but this has little effect on the quantity of output from this mother-of-all-loose-cannons. Biden really shouldn’t be let out the door unless chained to a TelePromTer.
What a schlameel
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
On this one, Christopher, we'll probably have to disagree. In the first place, there is no time when everyone stops spending. People may cut back, but they cannot completely cut off things like food and shelter. Times of trouble like ours have a benefit: they teach people what happens when they pursue their passions (by overspending), and offer opportunity for the church to lend a hand to those in need.
Governments, like referees, work best when they don't become players in the game.
Potatos may be all we can afford to eat soon :)
We you are going broke, you spend as little as possible and pay off your debts and budget to live with your means.
Those are dirty words for the Democrats.
It's not like we can just print our own money.
Oops...I guess we can...and we are.
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