No, I didn’t say “Why Barack Obama is doomed”; I don’t think his policy appointments and decisions will help the economic situation any, but I’m not suggesting that John McCain would have had the winning economic strategy. Rather, the point is that there isn’t a winning economic strategy at this point—the forces in play are just too big. Read Michael Lewis’ excellent piece in Condé Nast Portfolio to understand why. It’s long, but well worth it; remember, this is the guy who first identified the roots of the problem 20 years ago in his book Liar’s Poker, returning to autopsy the patient who died of the cancer he originally diagnosed. Trust me, read the whole thing—read it to the end; it will blow your mind. Then read the accompanying article on why there won’t be a recovery for a while yet, despite what the optimists say, and reflect on the fact that presidents always get blamed when bad things happen, whether it’s their fault or not. (George W. Bush can point to the mishandling of Katrina by Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin, for which he took pretty much all the blame outside of Louisiana; granted, Michael Brown and FEMA also did a very poor job, but the hit President Bush’s popularity took had far more to do with matters under their control than with things for which he was actually responsible. The only upside for Republicans is that this did lead the people of Louisiana to elect Bobby Jindal the next time around.) The Oval Office is going to be a rough place to be in 2010, and would be no matter who was sitting in it, for reasons which in large part will have nothing to do with its occupant. (At least on the economic side; when it comes to foreign policy, that’s another matter.)HT: Baseball Crank
Agreed, the next President would be doomed no matter what precisely because of the current economic crises.
I submit, though, that the length of the recession/depression to come can be mitigated or exasperated depending on the policies of the next President.
While Democrats are the precisely responsible for the mess we are in, Republicans are precisely responsible for not fixing it when they had the chance. So both parties are equal to the blame IMHO.
What to do?
1. Budget Freeze
2. Dismantle Freddy and Fannie. They are failed business models. Put those responsible for cooking the books in prison.
3. No bailout. Let the Free Market work. Those that go bankrupt go bankrupt. Those that stay afloat can buy up the assets of the losers. It will be painfull but the more money that is thrown at the problem the bigger the bill you hand your children and grandchildren to pay it back.
4. Tax Freeze. Make the Bush Tax cuts perminent. Lower the Cap Gains Tax. The only way out of this is to grow our way out with more tax reciepts and the only thing that is proven to do this is cutting taxes at every level. Businesses will flourish, they will hire more employees, those employees will grow the national tax base. Consumer spending will increase which will create more tax revenue.
5. Remove all restrictions for drilling domestic oil to eliminate our dependance on foreign oil.
6. Build more Coal Fired Power Plants, Build a dozen new refineries, Build Nuclear Power Plants.
7. Stop ethanol subusidies and ethanol price supports at the pump. It is a proven inefficient fuel and consumes more resources then it produces. If it can’t be brought to market as an economically viable product that supports its own infrastructure, then let die till somebody smarter can figure out how to do it right. The increase in feed prices is pushing livestock farmers out of business, especially here in MN. Removing this drain on the economy will bring down prices at market for all consumable goods.
There’s more but that would be a good start.
-dbrletich
No argument from me, so long as you restrict the term “bailout” to what are actually bailouts, such as the attempt to hand our automakers lots of money to avoid going into bankruptcy when, quite frankly, going bankrupt is their only hope.