Harvard Economist: "Stimulus is worst bill since the 1930's"

[TheHouseMan]

http://www.examiner.com/x-2304-DC-Republican-Examiner~y2009m2d9-Harvard-Economist-Stimulus-is-probably-the-worst-bill-that-has-been-put-forward-since-the-1930s

Considering that a lot of bills have been put forward by Congress in the last 70 years, this is really saying something.
Dr. Robert Barro is one of the most influential economists in the world.

From The Atlantic via Stephen Spruiell at The Corner, who got it from Will Wilkinson.

"This is probably the worst bill that has been put forward since the 1930s. I don't know what to say. I mean it's wasting a tremendous amount of money. It has some simplistic theory that I don't think will work, so I don't think the expenditure stuff is going to have the intended effect. I don't think it will expand the economy. And the tax cutting isn't really geared toward incentives. It's not really geared to lowering tax rates; it's more along the lines of throwing money at people. On both sides I think it's garbage. So in terms of balance between the two it doesn't really matter that much."[/i]

It is common knowledge that the Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush (43) tax cuts spurred the economy back into shape. By contrast, the FDR spendfest in the 1930's, as well as attempts in Japan and Argentina to spend their way out of recessions did nothing. These are proven (and disproven) models.

Obama's combination of mega-spending and welfare payments tax rebates to people who don't pay taxes (as opposed to cuts in the tax rate), are a double-whammy of pure Socialist folly.

One keen Democrat notes that this is neither a stimulus bill nor a pork bill. It is actually a permanent Democrat patronage bill, designed to create an army of people beholden to the Democrat Party for decades to come.

And yet Obama bleats on with The Big Lie (here (today), here, and here) that the economy is in the worst shape since the Great Depression.

This lie is so easily disproved, and yet (surprise!) the MSM won't call him on it. Jammie Wearing Fool via Gateway Pundit has a little graphic that shows that, far from the worst economy since the Great Depression, our economic situation isn't even nearly as bad as downturns in the 1970's and 1980's.



The Big Lie is that Obama knows this and yet deliberately uses phony numbers and rhetoric to pass a bill that may itself cause a depression.

Change we can believe in?

[scoffer]

The current recession is a different animal all together.

[Size10]

How do they figure that inflation is -0.1 now? It's more like 15% in real terms.

[larsonstdoc]

  There is less than $100 billion  of it that will create new jobs. Lack of jobs is the big problem.  It may be the worse bill since the 30's.

[Mber]

Lets stop beating around the bush.

We KNOW this is ALREADY a depression based on real unemployment rates.

We KNOW that this stimulus plan is going to do NOTHING but destroy our currency.

[Letsbereal]

By contrast, the FDR spendfest in the 1930's, as well as attempts in Japan and Argentina

to spend their way out of recessions did nothing.

These are proven (and disproven)models.

[Geolibertarian]

And yet Obama bleats on with The Big Lie (here (today), here, and here) that the economy is in the worst shape since the Great Depression.

This lie is so easily disproved, and yet (surprise!) the MSM won't call him on it. Jammie Wearing Fool via Gateway Pundit has a little graphic that shows that, far from the worst economy since the Great Depression, our economic situation isn't even nearly as bad as downturns in the 1970's and 1980's.

Let's have a little reality check, shall we?

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http://www.prisonplanet.com/driving-over-the-cliff.html


...December’s job losses were revised up by 53,000 jobs from 524,000 to 577,000. The revision brings the two-month job loss to 1,175,000. If this keeps up, Obama’s promised three million new jobs will be wiped out by job losses.

Statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reports that this huge number is an understatement. Williams notes that built-in biases in seasonal adjustment factors caused a 118,000 understatement of January job losses, bringing the actual January job loss to 716,000 jobs.

The payroll survey counts the number of jobs, not the number of employed as some people have more than one job. The Household Survey counts the number of people who have jobs. The Household Survey shows that 832,000 people lost their jobs in January and 806,000 in December, for a two month reduction of Americans with jobs of 1,638,000.

The unemployment rate reported in the US media is a fabrication. Williams reports that in changes since 1980, particularly in the Clinton era, “‘discouraged workers’ those who had given up looking for a job because there were no jobs to be had–were redefined so as to be counted only if they had been ‘discouraged’ for less than a year. This time qualification defined away the bulk of the discouraged workers. Adding them back into the total unemployed, actual unemployment, [according to the unemployment rate methodology used in 1980] rose to 18% in January, from 17.5% in December.”

In other words, without all the manipulations of the data, the US unemployment rate is already at depression levels.

[Continued...]

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[EchelonMonitor]

It's the guaranteed total collapse bill, but I'm beginning to think that may be a good thing.

http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=85334.0

[Revolt426]

The bill is awful but i wouldn't take a Harvard Professors opinion for granted. Harvard is full of NWO trash now and they brainwash their students with meaningless nonsense.

[Revolt426]

The Big Lie is that Obama knows this and yet deliberately uses phony numbers and rhetoric to pass a bill that may itself cause a depression.

Change we can believe in?

Actually - This is 100x worse then 1929-1932 , the period in which Herbert Hoover pumped 100 Billion dollars of Gold Convertable Currency into the system when the FED only had 4 Billion in their reserves. This was the situation as of 1933 when FDR took office:

"My investigation convinced me that during the last quarter of a century the average production of gold has been falling off considerably. The gold mines of the world are practically exhausted. There is only about $11,000,000,000 in gold in the world, with the United States owning a little more than four billions. We have more than $100,000,000,000 in debts payable in gold of the present weight and fineness. . . As a practical proposition these contracts cannot be collected in gold for the obvious reason that the gold supply of the entire world is not sufficient to make payment."

-- Congressional Record, Congressman Dies, March 15, 1933.

That is precisely what led to FDR immediately putting the FED into bankruptcy, hence de-coupling the dollar from the Gold Standard, the idiocy of Hoover and prior to him, Cooldige who made that mess. This also led to FDR passing the Glass/Steagall act which prohibited Commercial Banks from engaging in Speculation - hence depriving them of the ability to continue the the madness that was going on. The Result of the Glass Steagall act Split JP Morgan's bank into JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.



NOW: we have a far worse situation, due to three factors

1. We are in a Globalized Economy
2. We have a 1.5 Quadrillion Dollar Bubble of Derivatives that interlink all major Commercial and Investment Banks.

3 Clinton Repealed the Glass/Steagall act under the Republican Congress in 1999-2000 after beeing lobbied by Greenspan and Larry Summers, thus opening the gates to Derivative speculation in Commercial Banks, which in reality , Commercial Banks have no right to do.

So, the comparison between the situations is there, however Obama is handling  the situation as Hoover did, Re-Capitalizing Banks and offering a measly few billion dollars into actual Infrastructure. We know what the result of this is going to be, a complete disintigration of the entire economic system.

This system will indeed have to be replaced and that is when the situation will become dire. Obama will have about 3 choices...

1. (The Rational Thing to do ) Put the FED and Entire Financial System into Bankruptcy and Freeze all Derivatives.

2. Nationalize the entire Commercial Banking system and make the populations pay off these tremendous debts for generations to come

or

3. Usher in a Global Bank and destroy the Nation State System.


In addition to option #1 i would also recommend Freezing all Home Foreclosures for a certain period of time , after bankruptcy is acheived, and negotiating a rent payment to all banks based on the homes new deflated value to re-capitalize the banks and allow them to continue their functions without kicking half of our population out of their homes and into the streets.

The Hoover do nothing option of pumping money into banks and praying the private sector will fix this is pure insanity, this is not going to fix itself i am very sorry to say.

[Jackie70]

excellent post, revolt426!! I'm glad someone brought up the derivatives mess 9which may be bigger than 1.5 quadzillion by now.)

This is a depression already and it will get far worse.

But it's also a chance to turn thing around. Bring back main street and local manufacturing. We are about too see a huge retail real estate burst as well. Businesses going belly up with no one to fill the empty stores. Local will be the deal.

Cobblers are making a come back as people get shoes repaired. Sewing is coming back as people look to get the rip repaired. Local farmer will be in demand. Local produce, ect.

With the decrease in credit we are also seeing the Baltic Dry Index drop. Shipping is slowing down. People will start buying quality over cheap china made goods.

When people start to realize they can save thier own communities then maybe they will realize we do have to power to stop the NWO and the traders in the federal government.