Media Appearance: CNBC’s Fast Money (9/01/10)
By Barry Ritholtz - September 1st, 2010, 4:45PM
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Tonite I will be on Fast Money on CNBC at 5:30pm discussing the next NFP, Tax Cuts, and big Infrastructure Stimulus.
Temp tax cuts, UE extensions, cash for states all have temporary effect, but big infrastructure – Interstate Highway, Apollo program, Darap — all leave behind something valuable for the private sector tyo build upon.
a few key infrastructure issues:
• Manhattan Project for Alt.Energy Research;
• Airports: Key US entry airports (NY, LA, Miami) are embarrassments;
• Bridge, Road and Tunnel Maintenance: are great at building, but terrible at maintenance. (pay for it with a 20 cent gas tax)
• Upgrading (and securing) US Ports
• Last, China are the world’s biggest & best Keynesians
Should be fun!
~~~
Update: 9/1/10 8:33pm
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September 1st, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Few taxes are more regressive than a gas tax.
Barry, do you even think about the little guy when you throw this stuff out there?
Once again, one of your possible solutions to the problem created by rich guy fat cats involves another butt-slamming for the lowest on the totem pole. Haven’t we had enough?
When you are driving the new Audi V10 to the Hamptons I guess an extra .20 cents a gallon ain’t no big thing to throw around. When you are nursing the ancient Reliant to the home care assistant job which is all you can find, .20 a gallon looks like a much bigger hill to climb. Have you had to make a food vs gas choice lately, Barry? Somehow I guess not.
Do you even remember what it’s like to be blue collar, sub-blue collar, working class person trying to get by on not much at all? My guess is you fallaciously self-identify with some working guy type background, the roots of which are buried under a far different, far more comfortable life you enjoy now, and you don’t even realize how off your personal radar the concerns of that class truly are to you.
September 1st, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Mike,
When I was waiting tables putting myself thru college, I was more than happy to pay for what I consumed.
Driving on roads, bridges, tunnels etc. a 20 cent (or even 50 cent) gas tax would not have killed me — unlike the many people who have already died in unmaintained bridges, non-earthquake proofed overpasses, collapsing tunnels.
PS: My daily driver is a Honda Crosstour
September 1st, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Yes, some infrastructure projects in the past have been well worth the initial expenditure.
But who among us trusts Obama to spend large sums of money wisely?
He would almost certainly try to use the money to buy votes ahead of the 2012 election, and without regard to the long-term economic interests of the country.
And presumably, the public wouldn’t get a chance to see what’s in the bill until 5 minutes before Congress votes on it.
September 1st, 2010 at 5:32 pm
DL
Thats an unfair form of rhetoric — You can say the same thing about ANY president:
There is no arguing against that, except to point out how absurd the rhetoric is . . .
September 1st, 2010 at 5:33 pm
” China are [sic] the world’s biggest & best Keynesians”
Indeed. And let’s remember that when they hit the wall like Japan did, having grossly misallocated resources.
September 1st, 2010 at 5:51 pm
You don’t think that politically motivated government intervention in housing as an entitlement played a HUGE role in the housing bubble and credit bubble? Have you heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? Or Perhaps Barney Frank or the FHA?
~~~
BR: Alex, I’d like clueless wingnut talking points for 100 please.
September 1st, 2010 at 5:52 pm
keep him coming back onto FM (…you too simon :) )
September 1st, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Steve G
Ahhh, I feel like I was cheating — We had someone from across the pond moderating who wasn’t shocked at the thought of intervention in a failing economy.
That’s a stacked deck in my favor!
September 1st, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Just saw you on Fast Money today – great job on the industrial policy argument.
We need to keep pushing this, because without it, the US is not going to be able to produce the kinds of things that will keep ordinary Americans in the middle class and the United States at the forefront of technology and productivity.
We also need to challenge the idea that government can’t spend money intelligently. The conservatives always trot out the idea that government is by definition incapable of making smart choices. This is not true. Businesses make tons of dumb choices (Lehman, GM, etc.). Government has one specific issue, which is that it is a monopoly on public authority, and so it isn’t easily replaced through competition. But if we can develop ways for government to *adapt* to realities, new spending can be very good.
September 1st, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Unbelievable appearance on Fast Money, Barry. Great job.
The Cortez chart response was exquisite! The response regarding government spending was spot on, especially vis a vis the original funding for the internet. Dude, you were on FIRE!
Why they need to always go to commercial when they get a guy who beats back “street consensus opinion” is beyond any of us.
I’ve been a sideline reader of your site for about a year now. First time commenting. I just had to comment after I found myself applauding your comments/retorts to the “less government/cut taxes” crew.
Well done.
Best regards,
louis
September 1st, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Keep in mind there is already a massive upgrade that’s about to begin at LAX.
September 1st, 2010 at 6:36 pm
DL – when did you become such a partisan? You sound like you’re about ready to join the Tea Baggers, if you haven’t already.
September 1st, 2010 at 6:41 pm
What about the first stimulus? That was supposed to fix the problem. It is insulting for anyone, including this blog’s host to jump on and try to tell us that the “new and improved” stimulus is different. Enough is enough. The first stimulus cost us more than the entire Iraq war!! They had their chance to spend the money correctly and they blew it.
~~~
BR: The first stimulus was a half-assed compromise, ill thought out, poorly designed. It might have prevented the recession from getting worse, but it left no lasting improvement.
September 1st, 2010 at 6:41 pm
@MikeNYC
I am quite sympathetic to the struggling poor and their issues with gas prices. However, the fact is that we cannot fix the working poor problem via gas prices. I am more than willing to let that gas tax be 30 cents a gallon and use the extra 10 cents to increase the standard deduction and the earned income credit to compensate poor people. I am also willing to find a more dignified solution to working poor peoples problems by increasing the minimum wage.
September 1st, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Wow did you hear that guy that was going on about Tax cuts. That is right everyone, let the deficit go to a quadrillion bucks. I still don’t think people get it…
September 1st, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Good going, BR..
w/these:
• Manhattan Project for Alt.Energy Research;
• Airports: Key US entry airports (NY, LA, Miami) are embarrassments;
• Bridge, Road and Tunnel Maintenance: are great at building, but terrible at maintenance. (pay for it with a 20 cent gas tax)
• Upgrading (and securing) US Ports
• Last, China are the world’s biggest & best Keynesians
you sound like you’re rattling off the first, of 14, points of the next Five-Year Plan..
September 1st, 2010 at 7:26 pm
@MikeNYC – besides, doesn’t NY already collect something like 40 or 50 cents a gallon as it is? (probably in the neighborhood of a couple billion dollars a year). What does that pay for? And last I checked, there weren’t too many bridges or tunnels in the NYC area that were toll-free. Practically have to take a HELOC out to afford the gas and tolls to visit family on the Island.
For the money they take in, you’d think the roads would be smooth as glass with 14k gold lane stripes.
And none of that even accounts for the ungodly cost of replacing tires/wheels/suspension components when you take a risk of driving on those roads.
September 1st, 2010 at 7:35 pm
@Mike: No Barry does not remember. Remember Barry is the son of a LI realtor, has a house in the Hamptons and once majored in equestrianism. Doesn’t make him a bad person. Better than most on WS.
Infrastructure investment won’t work. Too much money winds up in fat cat pockets and then off-shore. Funding their Caribbean escape pods. The velocity of money will remain zero. We’re cooked.
~~~
BR: Correction: My inlaws have a house in the Hamptons, where I crash on weekends. And I never majored in Equestrianism, but I was on the Riding Team in college, where I hasten to add I was the only straight male on the team amongst 25 lovely ladies, several of whom were generous enough to assist me in working on my riding technique. (Yes, Annabelle, I remember you vividly)
For the record, I am actually far craftier than I appear on TV . . .
September 1st, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Radio – hah, I’ve often thought of the same thing in the SF Bay Area. Every time I go home to visit friends the tolls on the bridges have gone up a dollar. Last I checked it was 5 bucks just to cross the Golden Gate!! Where the hell does all that money go?
September 1st, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Thor @ 6:36
I do believe that Obama, if left to his own devices, would send most of the money to the “blue” states that have the most union workers. He would also send some money to a few of the “swing” states, particularly Ohio and Florida. The “red” states would get nothing.
It’s not so much that I’m partisan as it is that I think the Federal government is spending way too much money.
September 1st, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Bravo! Someone who finally speaks sense. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Please keep doing it. We need more thoughtful people such as you.
We need to spend on infrastructure; education reform; education; and research. China plans to spend $720 billion on clean energy research over the next 10 years. We need a Marshall Plan for education reform. Race to the Top should be a $400 billion program not a mere $4 billion. If we can afford trillions of dollars of nation-building for others, we can spend $400 billion on our own children and grandchildren. We don’t need tax cuts. We need to put this country on a regular fiscal structure with foresight in spending. This is not a recovery or a revival, we must re-build this economy. These short term stimulus plans are a distraction for the longer term effort we must do in leaving a better country for our children.
Here is the comment I sent into Fast Money:
Barry Ritholtz speaks common sense. To the interstate highway system, the internet, and the space program, I would add semiconductors and computers. IBM did not build the ENIAC with it’s own funds. The early computer and semiconductor research was funded by Federal money over decades before commercial products were produced.
Also, Steve Grasso’s chart correlating the Bush tax cuts and the S&P500 is disingenuous and not intellectually honest. At the same time we had substantial deficit spending and massive monetary policy easing by the Fed. We went from a $5 trillion national debt to over $11 trillion spending on war materials and other things. This had a lot to do with the economy activity and much more so than the tax cuts. The tax cuts were merely coincidental (not cause and effect) and the chart ignores major economic factors that influenced stock prices far more. Even so, none of it does well when correlated to US jobs produced. Consumers spent on imports thus sending their money abroad; employers outsourced jobs to non-US locations. The last 10 years has been a failure in creating sustainable US jobs and preparing our country for our children and grandchildren. It has been exemplary in fully exploiting the hedonism of baby boomers under the mythology of supply-side economics.
September 1st, 2010 at 8:55 pm
More to the point of dl’s 8:16, yeah lets do exactly that no big government for you 2years!!!
September 1st, 2010 at 8:55 pm
@BR: HEHE. Great response. Gotta love those babes.
September 1st, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Barry, it may be best to use Brazil and South Korea as examples when you advocate industrial policy, and then refer to China. Otherwise, you risk the counterargument that you want the government to be authoritarian like the Chinese, so you need to have democratic exemplars of successful industrial policy.
The other issue is that our recession has severe structural elements, which are basically that our economy can no longer pay itself for simply moving Chinese products into US consumers hands, paid for by cash-out refinancing based on rising home prices. We actually need to start producing things, and we don’t know what those things are. The government does best when it tries to set a direction, without picking specific products and technologies.
The argument for industrial policy is not the same as the argument for stimulus, but they can go together. The stimulus argument is that aggregate demand is lagging. The industrial policy argument is about the need for structural adjustment to a new globalized reality.
Great job tonight. I’m behind you all the way!
September 1st, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Nice job refuting Cortes’ claim “I’d rather give people back their own money”
Why these guys like Cortes continue to throw around statements that are not supported by empirical data is laughable. We’re just asking for the Clinton era rates back on people making over $250K.
Remember what Bush’s “Give the money back to the people?” did to the surpluses ….oh but it’s not “our” debt, right? Maybe Congress should give everyone their share of the debt along with their tax cuts.
And why the GOP is allowing ’11 tax cuts for the lower 98% to languish, when everyone on CNBC claims that not knowing tax rates is the business problem (even though business investment was mid teens last quarter…)
…and the GOP agrees with Obama and the Democrats who want to give the tax cuts to the lower 98% is because their whole GOP reason for being is cutting upper income marginal rates.
P.S. to DL,
…people who say the Federal government is spending too much need to realize 80% of the Fed’s spending is SS, Medicare, Defense, Veterans and Debt interest. On $3T spending, eighty percent is $2.6T With a $2T tax take, you can cut all the rest of government and still be $600B in annual deficit.
Stop saying the government is spending too much until you can say what you want to cut. If you want to cut SS, Medicare and Defense by 50% and you’d still need the old Clinton rates to be at zero deficit.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:08 pm
I agree with VennData for a change. What’s in the world is happening here? ;-)
September 1st, 2010 at 9:08 pm
>Barry said: For the record, I am actually far craftier than I appear on TV . . .
I KNEW there was a reason I liked you and your blog. ;-)
September 1st, 2010 at 9:13 pm
DL said
“The “red” states would get nothing.
Spoken like some moron from a red state. If one looks at Fed. receipts v. expenditures…the red states often amount to huge welfare queens…with states like NY, NJ, IL, and most of the upper midwest(blue states) lucky to get 60-70% of what they send to DC back in fed. spending.
To bring it back to CNBC, I love when one of these governers from a red state is given his 10 min. of pr softballs to trumpet his “pro-biz tax regieme”. Look at the stats and his state gets 150% of their fed income taxes back in fed spending. Welfare queen.
“It’s not so much that I’m partisan as it is that I think the Federal government is spending way too much money.” I love the “spending problem” talking point! Defence, SS, Medicare and int. on the debt are 80% of the budget! People love to talk about cutting fed. spending…JUST NOT WHAT THE FED. GOVT. ACTUALLY SPENDS MONEY ON.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Bravo! Bravo ! Watching and listening to your comments tonight on Fast money restored my confidence in humanity. You did a superb job clearly communicating intelligent alternatives to our social and political mass. Unfortunately the influence and power are in the hands of content narrow minded people. It surprises me how Steve Cortes, a smart wall street trader doesn’t see or understand the situation. I can only guess he lives in a very small world.
Thank you very much for expressing the truth to those knuckle heads.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:21 pm
No.
Venndata is only partially, self-servingly right.
Annual cash flow pays no respect to the millions of Americans that have been paying into SS for decades. And would like to feel like they can get some of it back, instead of having it go to the WS whores, lobbyists and DC whores.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:25 pm
It’s an outrage tax my money back! I bilked the public fair and square!
September 1st, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Barry,
I’ve been reading your site for a few weeks now, and I have found your commentary & analysis to be one of the few I admire & trust. I saw your video from appearing on Fast Money, and what struck me was that I don’t think those guys even realized they got their asses kicked (ie putting up a misleading chart about growth from Bush’s tax cuts, that you shot down in a nanosecond).
I typically prefer to just read because its usually not worth writing anything, as it will not change anyone’s mind on these types of comment boards. But I actually was considering it on this issue, but I notice that one needs to be logged in to comment. Ever consider opening the comments to anyone (no login required)? I have enough logins and passwords, I certainly don’t need another one.
Great site, keep up the good work!
September 1st, 2010 at 9:54 pm
I enjoyed your appearance on fast Money and especially your quick response to Steve Cortez with how well the Chinese Keynesians are doing. I am a retired very small time investor who majored in economics at Brown. I sometimes feel like throwing things at the TV with all the crap I hear from Kudlow and some of the other hosts.
September 1st, 2010 at 10:09 pm
But it was the tax cuts, he even had a chart to prove it . . .
September 1st, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Sometimes you make so damned sense that you come off sounding ridiculous amongst the pay to perform CNBC jeering jesters.
Good job.
September 1st, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Barry is on the right track, the rest of the panel can be summed up as Easter Island:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/no-longer-the-republican_b_701755.html
and bailouts for the non-productive:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/01/the-10-banks-that-recieve_n_701660.html
and
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/wall-street-guiding-ameri_b_700135.html
Future infrastructure will include robotics, biotech, nanotech, AI, and infrastructure like
http://www.verticalfarm.com/
which will require a total rethinking of macroeconomics:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-ford/will-google-destroy-itsel_b_700130.html?ir=Technology
Because the agricultural, manufactured, service goods will be produced with a much smaller percent of the current workforce, but dependent on consumer spending of everyone. Another point to remember is that sometimes it pays to remove congestion and gridlocks in the economy to make it more efficient.
September 1st, 2010 at 11:12 pm
When are they going to give you your own show? Seems like a no-brainer!
September 1st, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Your best spot yet on that show, I think you got it dialed in on how to talk to those hyenas.
Do you still think there is any place for the mortgage rewrites you talked about in the book? For those that can still pay won’t that be a pretty good stimulus also?
September 2nd, 2010 at 12:34 am
Mr. BR,
Come On, Just Do It. You have to do a show and moderate it too. So much rhtoric nowdays is pure BS, but a good moderator can quash that well! Do a show- maybe Louis Rukeyser Lives!
As a business owner (very small), engineer and one-time accountant I had always been a believer in the Free Market theory. We don’t have this anymore. We have Geithner funelling hundreds of billions to NINCOMPOOP bankers who can’t even do a clever enough job bilking the US, NO, they nearly axed a big part of the world economy(yes, I know, ratings agencies, government lackies, those reprehensible buyers who believed the sales pitches(they should be shot of course!) etc they all chipped in.
I believe that your proposals are very good AND are now badly needed thanks to government mediated De-Industrialization. All the frauds who said we would keep the hi-tech work here??? Where are they now??? Indians brought over on visas, R&D farmed out to foreign workers, where is this high tech paradise we were promised? hahahahah There is a term for that form of government which is oriented toward helping a certain class and type of business, at the expense of others (the US Gov/Finance) and supports it with the wealth of a nation, and it is definately not free market. Europe experimented with that in the 1930′s
Like everything we have been promised, it has mostly been lies. If it takes government intervention a la Apollo, or the US Interstate system, JUST DO IT since this market was never actualy free, ever. And for the clucks who don’t want the government doing anything, why don’t you guys stop pigging out at the public trough. Any of you understand how much money TEA PARTY Alaskans get from the Federal government? Bet not.
In the service we had to fix dummies ourselves. A nice blanket party would be good for some of you.
Ex-Jarhead
September 2nd, 2010 at 1:30 am
@gman nice read
I am a native upstate NYer , but now NYC resident , I hear the same thing from my friends back home ( their taxes support NYC ) when reality is opposite .. they’re the welfare queens , who also have the prisons n colleges . etc.
Barry , you got it nailed w/ infrastructure , were going to be left behind dust with Asia/Europe . its happening now . were lucky too maintain the crap we have , much less construct anything new .
September 2nd, 2010 at 1:45 am
Just a couple of comments:
If you want an example of a very successful industrial policy, Germany clearly is a prime one – and one that might be politically acceptable in the U.S In brief, the national government acts as a enabler rather than a director; it doesn’t target industries to support as much as it does establish an institutional and structural environment that allows manufacturing to flourish. Critically, it does play a significant role in helping companies deal with international competition, without using protectionism, or heavy subsidies.
As for a gas tax, one of the best proposals that I have run across, and has drawn favorable attention from across the spectrum of economic thinking is a $1 per gallon surcharge with the revenue being used to lower payroll taxes -in equal amounts. That means that if you use less gas than the average amount, you get more money back than you paid. (Provisions for the self-employed via tax credits on their quarterlies, and more money per month for SS recipients.) This Pigovian tax uses market forces to encourage efficiency. While this doesn’t address how to maintain and repair our decaying road system, anything that reduces the number of miles driven does help. With the additional benefit of reducing fuel consumption which is going to be essential in the coming decades.
September 2nd, 2010 at 1:46 am
If we’re going to borrow from our children, let’s at least use the funds to create something useful and lasting that they will benefit from.
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:04 am
We forget that these people still exist.
That guy who thinks the 2003 Bush tax cuts caused the boom was utterly clueless. I cannot believe anyone trusts him to manage their money.
And these people are still in positions of authority and influence. How embarrassing for you Americans.
September 2nd, 2010 at 6:35 am
Nice job, BR, I think, since I don’t watch CNBC anymore. I’m sure you were great though.
On another note, this one at NC about Dick Fuld evoked a good chuckle:
Or maybe Fuld still believes in the tooth fairy:
The market responded with enthusiasm to reports that the Tooth Fairy has agreed to acquire Lehman. The purchase price has not yet been determined and will be set by Dick Fuld wishing upon a star, clicking his heels three times, and being transported back to that magical place where Lehman still sells for over $70 per share.
In related news, Lehman has agreed to sell all of its level III capital, including CDOs, ABSs, pet rocks, baseball cards, slightly used condoms, and credit default swaps written by MBIA and Ambac. Lehman’s level III capital will be acquired for 150% of its face value by Tinkerbell, who will carry it off to Neverland to be fed to a crocodile. Lehman is financing 90% of the acquisition at an interest rate that has not been announced; Tinkerbell’s up-front payment consists of a handful of pixie dust, three crickets, and a bullfrog. Analyst Dick Bove estimates that the bullfrog could eventually be transformed into three princes and a pumpkin coach. The deal gives Lehman no recourse to any of Tinkerbell’s assets other than the Level III capital. If Tinkerbell defaults, Lehman’s successor entity will stick its hand down the crocodile’s throat and attempt to get it to regurgitate. The firm’s historical value-at-risk analysis shows that sticking your hand down a crocodile’s throat is completely safe.
~~~~
BR: See this: Dick Fuld’s Fantastic Revisionism !
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:09 am
Self-servingly?
Social Security has not been saved in annuities …since Reagan “fixed” SS – by raising taxes on working people and small businesses (where were the Steve Cortes and the :give people back their money” folks then?)
…that money has just been another tax covering the day-to-day operations of the Federal government.
As we all know, payroll tax is a highly regressive tax that raises the total rate tax paid by working people and small businesses well over the tax rate paid by rich people. The GOP attempts to obfuscate this by only talking about INCOME taxes being higher for “the rich” but the facts are the most people pay more in PAYROLL taxes, two thirds of Americans in fact…
http://www.urban.org/publications/1001065.html
… so unless you want to cut Social Security by 50%, Defense by 50% and Medicare by 50% you aren’t going to do anything create surpluses to pay off the Bush debt. I have yet to hear a Tea Party plan that deals with the massive reality of the Bush structural deficits.
All I hear as “we can’t raise taxes” on “the rich” …or “Obama doesn’t care about the deficit.” You can’t say them both, it’s one or the other.
It’s OK for investment managers to talk – …their book – about not wanting the upper income taxes raised and the deficits aren’t a problem, but they are a problem.
Obama and the Democrats want to raise rates for people making more than 250K (singles 200K) to the Clinton boom rates. The real issue for the rich funding the Tea party – sheep – is those dividend tax rates of 15% that Warren Buffett’s always comparing himself to his secretary over. Unless you understand and talk about the unfairness of that, you’re the one who’s either self-serving (if you’re making millions a year ) or clueless if you’re not.
FYI, I’m not for cutting SS, Medicare or Defense by 50%. I’m for the Clinton rates. And a gas tax, a big one (because a food tax is way more regressive, so is the pay roll tax… a tax on work… think about it.)
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:46 am
Nice job yesterday…
Funny that they make you stand there like a fifth grader presenting a project to his class…
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:12 am
in our day you could work you’re way thru school and almost cover all expenses, now adays you end up in the hole every year by 5-10K, based on 20 hrs a week, five bucks 30 years ago, ten bucks today
American Projects with HUGE PAYOFFS
erie canal
panama canal
interstate highway
space program
internet? really part of space program
since then, time effort and energy on shipping middle class jobs overseas, tax supported sports stadiums, and politicians building shrines to themselves thru stupid shyte, which IMHO youu’re right about alot of this stuff, maintenance costs that never get budgeted, and the medical industrial complex
as they say in trading….what is you’re edge?
merica, military, location, farm land, commodities and most easily navagable country in the world on almost every metric, now throw in a printing press and there u have it
IMHO, when they bagged the super collider in early nineties they puked on investing in the new new
we need to lead, thus we should invest in gambling and tourism, make it a national initiative, if we can get other countries smart rich to vacation here, we can get them too move here with there money, with the money we generate we should finance small machinery–manufacturing—companies 10-50 strong everywhere all the time
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:25 am
outstanding!
The guy telling you to study at the school of Kudlow? you kept calm and waited for some substance to refute. those two are not fit to shine your shoes. if not mistaken i glimpsed you biting your tongue on that one.
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:31 am
I think you can tell true progress in a society by its architecture and how people move within its limits. It’s a feeling you get when you go to a place that takes care in those subtle little details. It’s hard to describe but you know when you’re walking in progress and innovation. There are few places like that in the US. Drive along a freeway in Southern California and look around at how they keep it up. They way we present ourselves as a nation is very third world.
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:47 am
@Rescission;
The first stimulus was a 0.8 trillion bag of money to fill a 2.0 trillion hole in aggregate demand. You had to be pretty stupid if you expected that to “fix the problems”. The fact that it managed to stop the free fall and turn GDP positive was more than you could have hoped for (thank goodness for the multiplier effect).
@Guy;
Yes you could take the deficits and the S&P and nicely correlate them. That one could not only show a correlation but also has a credible model of how one can course the other (excess money to the investor class course increase in stock prices).
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:55 am
Nice job.
September 2nd, 2010 at 11:37 am
Increasing taxes is bogus and based on ignorance.
America’s infrastructure is crumpling. Our roads and bridges are in lousy condition. Many bridges and overpasses are rusty and maintenance has been neglected making many of them unsafe. Water pipes throughout the country are antiquated and must be replaced if we are to keep getting the clean drinking water we have become accustomed too. Maintenance in both our National and State Parks has also been under funded and neglected for years.
Not to mention the undermanned First Responders and deplorable condition of our educational system.
This needs to be fixed now and can be done without cost to taxpayers now or in the future. That’s right we don’t have to increase taxes, and we don’t have to borrow and there need not be any risk of inflation. Don’t take my word for it read Warren Mosler the Independent Candidate for the Senate in Connecticut’s new book “The Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds” http://moslereconomics.com/2009/12/10/7-deadly-innocent-frauds/
and see his recommendations which include a” 2) $500 per capita Federal revenue distribution for the states ”
http://moslereconomics.com/
September 3rd, 2010 at 8:33 am
[...] Yesterday, we discussed Infrastructure spending, following the WSJ article on more tax cuts as a stimulus. [...]