"Blain is a pain and that's the truth"

The Truth

Who does this economy belong to?  Last week, with DOW numbers falling like a paralyzed falcon, the mainstream media (MSM) was quoting conservatives left and right that President Obama’s plans were not being well received on Wall Street, Main Street or your street.  This past week, with a modest but heartwarming upturn in the financial news, no such stories appeared in your local news or in your local newspapers.  Why is that? 

Who does this economy belong to?  The Republicans, desperate as a party, are obstructing, denouncing and flatly rebelling against the Obama administration attempts to rescue the country.  The self-appointed or Whitehouse appointed head of the party, Rush Limbaugh’s words still echo, “I want him to fail”.  While the Washington Post is opining, “Over the past month, Obama has reminded the public at every turn that he is facing problems "inherited" from the Bush administration, using increasingly bracing language to describe the challenges his administration is up against. The "deepening economic crisis" that the president described six days after taking office became "a big mess" in remarks this month to graduating police cadets in Columbus, Ohio.”

The Huffington Post Sam Stein writes of White House officials trying to “talk up” the economy as much as they can: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/13/summers-consumer-confiden_n_174648.html

The Republicans keep pointing out, wrongly, the spending of FDR did not improve the economy in the Great Depression, and the key observation in this argument is the downturn in 1936-37. This is as close to a "scientific experiment" as there can be in macroeconomics: from '33 to '36 Roosevelt unleashed the New Deal and what passed at the time as massive spending. The GDP grew every year by double-digits.  Then, in a reversion to his true roots as a fiscal conservative, FDR decided that it was time to slash spending to balance the budget. The economy contracted. Then in '38, realizing the error of his ways, Roosevelt started spending again, and GDP grew every year thereafter.  Yet you will continue to hear Republicans cite FDR’s plan as a failed experiment over and over again, as if repeating it will make it the truth.

I’ve already admitted in an earlier post I’m an economic novice, so I guess you will have to decide.  At the time of this writing the Obama Administration is about 60-days old.  My common sense tells me that this economic crisis has been years in the making, and that the housing bubble was just one bubble that was artificial.  The lack of oversight on Wall Street (Madoff was LITERALLY unchecked-sorry about the caps, I hate them too) and the big time bankers made out like bandits and still are…while running our financial institutions into the ground.

Sources of Amusement

Sarah Palin and George W. Bush.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19996.html

blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/palin-v-politic.html

Happy reading.