Posts filed under 'Economy'
With its money:
The dollar surged to a two-year high against the pound and a six-month peak against the euro on Friday, as fears about spreading economic gloom triggered a sell-off in commodities.
Against sterling, the US currency notched up its 11th consecutive day of gains – its longest uninterrupted rise in more than 35 years – as markets became increasingly convinced that the US was best-placed to weather the global downturn.
The strong dollar rebound undermined sentiment in the gold market, where prices fell below $800 for the first time this year to $774.90 a troy ounce, almost a quarter lower than early March’s record $1,030.80.
Prices for crude oil, platinum, copper, aluminium, corn and soyabeans have also retreated from records hit this year, prompting speculation that commodity prices have reached a turning point.
“The golden age when commodity prices could only go up is gone,” said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at Unicredit.
Military tensions between Russia and Georgia have offered little support to the price of gold, while oil prices have continued to fall in spite of interruptions to two key pipelines carrying crude from the Caspian sea to Turkey.
The long-running surge in commodities and resulting inflationary pressures had been a main factor in slowing global economic activity – playing a bigger role than global financial turmoil, for instance, in the eurozone. The eurozone economy shrank in the second quarter for the first time since the launch of the euro in 1999, while Japan’s economy contracted 0.6 per cent, its worst performance for seven years. The US staged at least a modest recovery in the same period.
Uh, lefties, its because our taxes are lower and our welfare system less fabulously expensive.
What we need to get out of this slump is just more of the same - lower taxes, more personal responsbility, more reliance upon faith-based groups to provide welfare…McCain offers this; Obama offers the complete failures of Johnson and Carter as the “remedy” for what ails us…
Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain
August 16th, 2008
To the US dollar:
US stocks soared on Friday as the dollar saw its biggest one-day jump against the euro in eight years and oil prices plunged.
The moves marked a key reversal of a trend that many investors had followed profitably for months – betting that high commodity prices would keep the dollar weak.
The dollar reached its highest in five months against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, while oil fell more than $5 to $114.87, 22 per cent below its record high of $147.27 last month. The S&P 500 closed 2.4 per cent higher in New York.
The shift in sentiment was triggered by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, who warned on Thursday that third-quarter eurozone growth would be “particularly weak”. This sparked talk that the ECB would be forced to abandon its hawkish policy stance and start cutting interest rates, thereby weakening the euro.
“This is the watershed week for the US dollar,” said Marc Chandler, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. “The magnitude of the dollar’s moves and the breaking of key technical levels suggest that a major shift in the outlook towards the dollar is occurring as massive positions are adjusted.” Other analysts described the widespread buying of dollars as “capitulation”.
The dollar hit a five-month high of $1.5055 against the euro and climbed 1.3 per cent to $1.9189 against the pound – its strongest since November 2006.
Traders said the violence of the move was testimony to the extent to which the market had been surprised by economic weakness outside the US.
“Mr Trichet was unable to convince the public that the ECB had not been surprised by the eurozone’s economic downturn,” said Ulrich Leuchtmann at Commerzbank. “Therefore, the last remaining rate hike expectations were taken off the table.”
Why is this? Because if you’re looking for security, there’s nothing quite as good as the American economy and American law - we actually have the highest business ethics in the world (I know, hard to believe, but there it is) as well as very transparant requirements in corporate reporting which makes the investor confident that when he plunks his money into the United States he’ll know where it is and what can happen to it. Couple this with the largest economy in the world (I know, the Eurozone is supposed to be that, but that is mostly a mirage produced by massive Eurozone government spending), and you get the bank of last resort, the United States of America.
Bulwark of liberty, engine of economic growth, bastion of Judeo-Christian civilization - the United States serves many purposes, and with this comes a great responsibility. We simply must protect this great thing, the United States of America. We daren’t negligently throw it away in a bid for shallow popularity - hard as it may be to take, if what the United States must do is protect fools in their folly, then that is what we’ll have to do, in the hopes that the fools will learn wisdom. The people who complain about us the most are those who live most solidly lapped in the wealth and privilege built up by the long peace guarded by the United States (meaning, of course, that it has been because of us that no world war has erupted in the past 60 years). They glory in their wealth and power and know not where it comes from - its not so much biting the hand that feeds them, but biting the hand of a benefactor they don’t even recognise.
Its all good - those who have wisdom and strength are to use it for the benefit of others, and if all we do is what we can for the best, then we’ll have done all that is required of us.
Tags: dollar vs Euro, EU, oil price
August 9th, 2008
Courtesy of Nancy Pelosi, certainly the very worst Speaker in American history:
House Republicans, who insist that Speaker Nancy Pelosi call the House back from its summer recess so votes can be taken on their energy legislation, continued for a third day to make speeches to GOP staff members and Capitol Hill tourists.
They did so in the dimly-lit chamber of the House of Representatives, without the aid of working television cameras or a public address system.
The Republicans became miffed last Friday when Democrats abruptly adjourned the House until September 8 without giving them a chance to speak on the floor about their energy plan, which includes exploring for oil in ANWR and more off-shore drilling.
Even though the House had officially gone out of session, some Republicans stayed on the floor and made speeches anyway.
After taking the weekend off, the guerrilla oratory continued Monday, with organizers of the talk-in estimating that 24 of the 199 House Republicans participated…
…With the House not in session, the chambers’ televisions cameras have been turned off for the three days of speeches. The lights in the chamber have been dimmed, which is normally the case when the House is not session. Also the public address system is off, forcing the Republicans to speak up so they can be heard in the large chamber.
Lucky tourists, many of whom just happened to be touring the Capitol, have been given the rare opportunity of sitting on the House floor. Wearing t-shirt and shorts, they became an impromptu audience for the speechmakers.
Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a statement on Monday saying, “This Republican hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to reduce the price at the pump and promote energy independence.”
House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., referred to GOP tactics as “stunts” by a “smattering of House Republicans”.
But Republicans claim their unofficial floor sessions are gaining traction with voters who are wondering why Congress is taking a five week vacation while gasoline prices remain so high.
They vow to continue speaking out on the House floor rest of this week and during the weeks ahead.
Its fine for Nancy to say we need a serious debate, but having such a debate is rather impossible if the Democrats cut and run from DC and head for the hills rather than be forced to vote in favor of energy measures popular with everyone except the money-bags of the kook left. That is the thing, you see? Any floor vote on the GOP energy measures will result in a lopsided vote in favor of the proposals - only those Democrats in absolutely safe Democratic seats would dare defy common sense on energy, and so the vote in favor would probably approach 300.
But, its all good: Nancy and Co have handed we GOPers a fine “kitchen table” issue for the fall. We’re willing to do the hard work of getting things rolling towards American energy independence while the Nancy-boy Democrats hide. Come the election, we’ll be able to point out our willingness to make the hard decisions contrasted with the Democrats stark, yellow-bellied fear of doing the same.
Tags: John Shadegg, Nancy Pelosi, oil price, Steny Hoyer
August 6th, 2008
The Wall Street Journal wonders:
The “windfall profits” tax is back, with Barack Obama stumping again to apply it to a handful of big oil companies. Which raises a few questions: What is a “windfall” profit anyway? How does it differ from your everyday, run of the mill profit? Is it some absolute number, a matter of return on equity or sales — or does it merely depend on who earns it?
Enquiring entrepreneurs want to know. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama’s “emergency” plan, announced on Friday, doesn’t offer any clarity. To pay for “stimulus” checks of $1,000 for families and $500 for individuals, the Senator says government would take “a reasonable share” of oil company profits.
Mr. Obama didn’t bother to define “reasonable,” and neither did Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, when he recently declared that “The oil companies need to know that there is a limit on how much profit they can take in this economy.” Really? This extraordinary redefinition of free-market success could use some parsing.
Take Exxon Mobil, which on Thursday reported the highest quarterly profit ever and is the main target of any “windfall” tax surcharge. Yet if its profits are at record highs, its tax bills are already at record highs too. Between 2003 and 2007, Exxon paid $64.7 billion in U.S. taxes, exceeding its after-tax U.S. earnings by more than $19 billion. That sounds like a government windfall to us, but perhaps we’re missing some Obama-Durbin business subtlety.
Why are Obama and his Democrats calling for a windfall profits tax on oil companies?
1. Because they still believe that class warfare works at the voting booth.
2. Because, quite honestly, they don’t know what else they should do.
Suppose Obama and his Democrats get their wish and soak Exxon for $100 billion. So what? By my rough calculation that works out to a figure equal to 3.33% of the annual Federal budget…and as that would be an increase of $35-odd billion, we’re really talking about increasing revenues by 1%…and that, of course, is to ignore the fact that if we tax away most of Exxon’s profits, we swiftly won’t have anymore Exxon profits to tax. As most, we’d realise about, say, $50 billion in additional revenue over a two or three year period. What is that supposed to accomplish? Especially as Exxon lays off workers and oil suppliers start to refuse to sell to America because they can make more profit selling elsewhere? As you stand in line to buy rationed gasoline in order to drive to the unemployment office, are you really going to feel better thinking that at least Obama “got” those greedy SOBs in Big Oil?
Keep in mind that I’m no fan of corporate America - after working for the past 7+ years in corporate America I can say with certainty that there’s nothing quite so contemptible as a large corporation…in fact, so bad are they that the only thing worse than Big Corporation is Big Government. Corporations at least produce some useful product or service - Big Government merely produces more government. Once I figure out a way to break up the large corporations without dislocating the economy, I’m on it for all I’m worth - but, meanwhile, the cretinous corporate behemoths are just part of the landscape (sort of like landfills on the otherwise pristine landscape of free market economics), and if you think they will behave in an irrationally self-destructive manner to please a President Obama, then you’ve got rocks in your head (they will, of course, continue to be irrationally self-destructive on their own hook, but that won’t help Obama and his Democrats).
The fairy tale world of Obama and his Democrats in on display here - they live in a world where Evil Corporations make life miserable for Little Workers and what is needed is Selfless Liberals to save the day. Thing is, you’re just as likely to find a pinhead on the production line as in the corporate boardroom - or in the Executive Branch of the United States government. People are people and a certain percentage of them, at any given time, are being complete boneheads (yes, yours truly, included). To assign to a class of people virtue or vice is as stupid as assigning to various skin colors certain advantages or disadvantages - we have to take things as they are and judge each person’s actions on the merits of their case. If a corporate boss is being a rapacious, greedy SOB, then we should point that out and work to thwart him - but because one creep is a CEO it doesn’t follow that all CEO’s are creeps. Nor should we think that being poor automatically means being virtuous - some poor people are poor because they are shiftless, ya know? Given this reality, the last thing we need is a bunch of liberals coming to save the day - by punishing corporations they will be taking a stripe off the good and the bad, and by pouring out funds on the poor indiscriminately they’ll be benefiting both the hard worker and the layabout.
Leave off schemes to tax corporations - it serves no useful purpose. Heck, any addtional taxation will just be passed on to the consumer, anyways in the form of lower wages, higher prices, lower employment or a combination of all three. Leave aside the nursery-room fairy tales from the Marxist-Leninist view of economics. Deal with things as they are - if you really want to do something to make oil companies less profitible, invest your efforts in finding larger sources of oil and alternatives to same. That will cut into Exxon’s profits more usefully than any windfall profits scheme, as well as doing something good for everyone.
Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain, oil price, windfall profits tax
August 5th, 2008
In a follow-up to a previous post, I submit for your approval a primer of how to ensure that we remain enslaved to third-world tinhorn dictators, jihadists and other whackos like Ahmadinejad and Chavez:
First, take a means of harvesting our own oil:
U.S. District Judge David Lawson of Detroit ruled Thursday the agency had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in 2005 by giving Savoy Energy LP of Traverse City a permit to drill an exploratory well near the Au Sable River’s south branch.
The proposed wellhead would be located in the Huron-Manistee National Forest about three-tenths of a mile from the Mason Tract, a 4,679-acre wilderness area prized by anglers and other outdoor recreationists.
Forest supervisor Leanne Marten said when approving Savoy’s application that the project wouldn’t significantly harm the environment and the company would be required to keep noise to a minimum.
Next, take two enviro-whacko groups whose true aim is to ensure that the United States ends up a third-rate power and a third-world conglomeration of collectives, reduced to living in squalor in thatched roofs, and for good measure bring along a willing accomplice whom they’ve shamed into acquiescing:
Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and Anglers of the Au Sable, sued the government to halt the drilling. Joining the suit was Tim Mason, whose grandfather, auto executive George Mason, donated the original 1,200 acres to the state upon his death in 1954 and asked that it be maintained as wilderness.
Then, get an activist leftist puke of a judge who sees things the way they do:
But the judge ruled the Forest Service didn’t consider how degrading the area could harm tourism,
Next, find a spotted owl or a caribou. If there are no spotted owls or caribou in the area, find another obscure species of flora or fauna to prop up as a defenseless cute critter who will suffer a woeful existence and/or disappear from the face of the earth if development takes place. Never mind that it won’t be the case. In trying to accomplish such a noble cause as destroying the United States, one must never let the truth get in the way of crippling the U.S. economy. The end, after all, justifies the means
“[The judge]…said the agency did a “woefully inadequate” job of evaluating how the drilling might affect the Kirtland’s warbler, an endangered songbird that nests in the area.”
And that, my friends, is how to ensure that we become a third world, third-rate nation, courtesy of your local friendly environmentalist/socialist whacko.
Shakespeare’s Henry VI was incomplete in his assessment that what was needed in the world was first to “kill all the lawyers.” He would have been more prescient if he included the radical environmentalists in his calculations.
Tags: energy policy, Environmentalism
July 12th, 2008
Seems to be more and more the case that while Obama will outspend McCain, the overall battle between Democrat and Republican will be more equal:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain raised more than $22 million in June, his best fundraising performance of the year, and ended the month with nearly $27 million cash on hand.
Campaign manager Rick Davis said Thursday that McCain and the national Republican Party together entered July with about $95 million in the bank. The Republican National Committee, which has been raising money jointly with McCain, collected nearly $26 million in June and had nearly $69 million on hand, officials said.
The campaign’s fundraising has given McCain the ability to spend more on television advertising than Democrat Barack Obama in key battleground states. Davis said about half of its income had been spent on television advertising.
Obama has not revealed his June fundraising.
In announcing McCain’s fundraising, Davis portrayed the campaign’s financial position as far brighter than ever before. He said the joint RNC-McCain fundraising through direct mail is now exceeding President Bush’s direct mail fundraising in 2004.
“We will have significant resources to prosecute a campaign that is very robust,” Davis said.
I wonder why Obama hasn’t released his June totals yet? I guess he doesn’t have to - but you’d think that if he were greatly outpacing McCain, he’d want to trumpet that…hey, just askin’….
The really crucial thing here for the GOP is the $69 million the RNC has - McCain is taking public financing, so all the money McCain raises must be spent by the end of August. That $69 million (which is likely to rise) will be used on party efforts to help McCain - and down-ballot GOPers (where we are trying to turn expected losses at least into holding our own). Meanwhile, the DNC is effectively broke, the Democrats can’t raise enough to pay for their convention and while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has a good sized bank account, it seems that Obama is sucking up all the rest of leftwing money, which opens the question about how down-ballot Democrats will fare even if Obama wins.
Things like the money totals; the continued ability of the military to secure recruits; the ability of President Bush to win on FISA and on war funding; the abysmal Congressional approval ratings….all fo this indicates that while Obama is still the favorite to win in November, he’s only marginally so and, meanwhile, the overall left - and the Democratic party - can’t figure itself a shoo-in (though, of course, they do believe that…and I hope they keep on believing they’ve got it in the bag).
My view is that the American people are worn out - tired out Iraq, true (but not so tired they are willing to lose in order to get out), but also tired of Congressional scandals (and, Donks, William Jefferson - you forced him to resign, yet?), tired of political back-biting, tired of heated rhetoric on energy while gas prices continue to rise, tired of shrinking home equity…change is, indeed, wanted and that is the whole point of Obama…but if specific change is proposed, which way will the electorate go? McCain is offering concrete proposals, while Obama keeps things as vague as he can. Which will actually resonate come November?
Tags: Barack Obama, Defeaticrats, fundrasing, John McCain, oil price, RNC
July 11th, 2008
NRO notes a move in Congress to tinker with credit card fees charged to merchants:
…As credit-card use has increased, the credit-card fees have been a larger item in retailers’ budgets. So lobbyists representing them have gone to Congress to ask for help. Reps. John Conyers and Chris Cannon, a Michigan Democrat and a Utah Republican, have obliged. Their bill would create a panel of judges to force negotiations over the fees and, failing a settlement, impose ones they deem fair.
Remarkably, this attempt to impose price controls has won the support of 17 Republicans, including such conservatives as Joe Wilson (S.C.), John Sullivan (Okla.), and Steve King (Ia.). They should know better. Australia has tried these controls, and the results have predictably been an increase in credit cards’ annual fees charged to customers.
The flaws in the legislation do not end there. Credit unions and community banks that issue credit cards would get hurt badly. Since the bill applies only to credit-card networks that have more than 20-percent market share, American Express would be exempt from it (even though American Express tends to charge higher fees).
Supporters of the bill are said to be considering modifying it. To win over more Republican legislators, they would get rid of the price controls and instead create an antitrust exemption so that merchants could band together to negotiate. No economic libertarian should find this offer appealing. If one side to a set of transactions gets an exemption, so should the other. An antitrust waiver for the merchants would amount to a congressional attempt to rig a deal in the merchants’ favor. If it succeeded, it too would be likely to yield increased fees to customers. And, to repeat, the merchants are not being victimized. They just want a better deal. Which is fine: but they should not get one through an act of Congress.
This is an area I have some expertise in as for the past 7 years I have worked for one of the largest banks - and largest credit card issuers - in the United States and, indeed, the world. How shall I nutshell this complex issues?
Easy - Credit cards suck.
Not the basic concept - as a matter of convenience its hard to beat a credit card. Much easier to just swipe a card than to fumble with cash or tediously fill out a check. But the way credit cards are managed by the banks is just horrific. If there’s a thing a credit card issuer can do to make things worse for everyone (including, in the long run, for the issuer), the banks are doing it. I’ve personally seen circumstances where accounts have their APR more than doubled for no discernable reason. You can’t get a bank to cut you slack on your credit card debt until you’ve gone well past due. The answer to being over limit? Charge a fee, which puts the account even further over limit. And its not just banks being stupid - government stupidity has come into play, too. Like this: for fear of being accused of “red lining” an area of the country, banks have remarkably lowered the threshold for obtaining a credit card, so all sorts of people who are either shiftless or simply ignorant of how credit works are able to obtain credit cards…and run up debts with a large number of late fees, over limit fees and punitive interest rates. Its a massive problem and it invites further interference by government in the marketplace.
What to do?
Well, the problem with massive banks is the same problem with massive government - anything that big cannot run itself properly. We mindless drones stand agog at the practices coming down the pike; for the life of us we can’t figure out what would make an ostensibly knowledgable corporate executive make decisions which are clearly counter-productive. But they are made - again and again and again. We do have our theories - mine is that these executives are so fixated on quarterly statements that they just don’t care what is happening as long as the balance sheet looks good long enough for them to exercise their stock options. Added to greed and cowardice is distance - some CEO in New York City simply can’t know what the credit needs of, say, Nevada are. Nevadans know, but no one in NYC wants to know what Nevadans know - so decisions are ground out which bear little or no connection to the actual problems being confronted or the needs being identified…and a huge smiley face is put on the whole show as the corporation’s executives - desperate to be thought of as nice guys - implement “diversity training” and shovel money out to environmentalist groups.
So, my solution: re-work the tax code to heavily punish large corporations and greatly reward new corporations, and corporations that are small to mid-sized. Force the CEO’s to break down their behemoths (and they’ll do it, too, because they’ll own stock in all the successor corporations) into smaller, regional companies able to actually work within the economic realities of their respective areas…and this would include being able to be flexible in what rates to charge merchants who accept a bank’s credit cards (ie, “mom and pop” can’t afford large fees, but Wal Mart can). In my economic world view, bigness is usually the culprit when there is a problem - bureaucracies and corporations get so big they can’t function but at the same time are so big they crowd out good ideas and innovation. Human beings aren’t built for either a Department of Housing and Urban Development or a General Motors…we’re built for Catholic Charities and Dodge, get it?
Tags: banking, Credit crunch
July 10th, 2008
Larry Kudlow notes the Reaganite rapidly emerging in John McCain:
Sen. John McCain gave two economics speeches in the last 48 hours. They were very strong, pro-growth, and pro-energy production. McCain also is finally slamming Obama on taxes and energy. Yesterday in Denver, the senator said, “If you believe you should pay more taxes, I am the wrong candidate for you. Sen. Obama is your man. The choice in this election is stark and simple. Sen. Obama will raise your taxes. I won’t.”
This is good. Strong. I hope it’s the beginning of a Big Mac resurgence under the new management of Steve Schmidt, who is effectively running the campaign as of this past weekend.
McCain also slammed Obama on energy, essentially labeling him Doctor No. In the Denver speech McCain said, “My opponent’s answer is no to more drilling; no to more nuclear power; no to research prizes that help solve the problem of affordable electric cars. For a guy whose ‘official seal’ carried the motto, ‘Yes, We Can,’ Sen. Obama’s agenda sure has a whole lot of ‘No, We Can’t.’” This also is good.
Increasingly McCain is shifting his positions towards the supply-side: across-the-board tax cuts, keeping the Bush tax rates on investment, slashing the corporate tax rate, doubling the child deduction for family dependents, cutting pork-barrel spending, and producing more energy.
As I’ve said very often, Obama’s policies are right out of Jimmy Carter’s playbook - they’ve hardly been modified since Carter proposed them back in the 1970’s, when Carterism was orchestrating “stagflation” in our economy and American surrender around the world. If we’ll just sweat a bit more in summer, freeze a bit more in winter, ride the bus and turn our wallets over to Obama and his Democrats, all will be well…and please pay no attention to the fact that Obama and his Democrats won’t be joining you in the new era of limits…they need their proligate ways because, well, they are important - and smarter than you, anyways. Meanwhile, John McCain is issuing a bold challenge to the American people which, boiled down, says “I will clear your path if you are willing to work hard for yourselves and your families”. We’ll find out in November if we’re still strong Americans, or whether we’ve taken a sharp turn towards Euro-socialist despair and decline.
Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain, supply side economics
July 9th, 2008
Once again showing why all conservatives should rally ’round McCain:
At its core, the economy isn’t the sum of an array of bewildering statistics. It’s about where Americans work, how they live, how they pay their bills today and save for tomorrow. It’s about small businesses opening their doors, hiring employees and growing. It’s about giving workers the education and training to find a good job and prosper in it. It’s about the aspirations of the American people to build a better life for their families; dreams that begin with a job.
So how are we going to create good jobs? Let’s start with small businesses, which create the majority of all jobs. A recent report says small businesses have created 233,000 jobs so far this year while other sectors are losing jobs. Small businesses are the job engine of America, and I will make it easier for them to grow and create more jobs. My opponent wants to make it harder by imposing a “pay or play” health mandate on small business. This adds $12,000 to the cost of employing anyone with a family. That means new jobs will not be created. It means existing employees will have their wages cut to pay for this mandate. My plan attacks the real problems of healthcare — cost, availability and portability.
Some economists don’t think much of my gas tax holiday. But the American people like it, and so do small business owners. Just ask Andrew Emmett who runs Air-Tite insulation in Michigan. He has had to stop hiring new workers because of the cost of fuel for his trucks.
We need to keep the IRS from taking more of your income and making life harder for small business. If you believe you should pay more taxes, I am the wrong candidate for you. Senator Obama is your man. The choice in this election is stark and simple. Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won’t. I will cut them where I can. Jobs are the most important thing our economy creates. When you raise taxes in a bad economy you eliminate jobs. I’m not going to let that happen.
Senator Obama’s tax increases will hurt the economy even more, and destroy jobs across this country. If you are one of the 23 million small business owners in America who files as an individual rate payer, Senator Obama is going to raise your tax rates. If you have an investment for your child’s education or own a mutual fund or a stock in a retirement plan, he is going to raise your taxes. He will raise estate taxes to 45 percent. I propose to cut them to 15 percent. His plan will hurt the American worker and family. It will hurt the economy and cost us jobs. For those of you with children, I will double the child deduction from $3,500 to $7,000 for every dependent, in every family in America. At a time of increasing gas and food prices, American families need tax relief and I, not my opponent, will deliver it.
Obama’s entire economic plan is just warmed-over Carterism…as was said of the Bourbons of old, the liberal Democrats have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. Obama’s blast-from-the-past concepts like a “windfall profits” tax shows that he hasn’t thought about economics, but has swallowed whole the liberal concept that the government knows best. McCain, however, is a longstanding Reaganite on the economy - the man who understands that as far as economic growth is concerned, the best thing the government can do is get the heck out of the way. You can’t manage an economy from the center because you can’t know what people want, nor what people are willing to do. Only the free interplay of the market can make such determinations - still imperfectly, but far more effectively than even the wisest and most knoweldgable government bureaucrat.
But McCain is also no booster of mere business for the sake of business - he seems to instinctively understand that the very large corporations can be just as ineffective as the very large government bureaucracies and this is why McCain’s emphasis is on the smaller corporations and family businesses. It is the man or woman who is building up something of their own who is doing the real work of America - not the man working on becoming CEO of a Fortune 500 company, no more than the empire-building bureaucrat is. Large corporations and large bureaucracies will remain, at least for a while; but the less said about them, the better - and lets certainly not go about encouraging them. Unleash the average American, and you’ll get prosperity. McCain is for such unleashing, while Obama is for fastening yet more chains about us…nice chains, to be sure; chains which are intended to help us, it goes without saying…but chains nonetheless, and chains which will ruin us and, for the 1,000th time, dash liberal hopes and dreams.
We’ve hit a rocky patch at the junction of stupid loans (made, it must be noted, mostly by larger corporations with the connivance of Big Government) and high oil prices. The economy is in fundamentally good shape, but in order to weather this storm and emerge stronger on the other side of it we’ll need a free marketing Reaganite like McCain, not a quasi-socialist Carterite like Obama.
Tags: Barack Obama, economic policy, government spending, John McCain, taxes
July 8th, 2008
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