In 1955, then-Senator John F. Kennedy wrote the book “Profiles in Courage”. The book documents eight US senators who took tremendous political risks by supporting unpopular causes. President Kennedy’s book won the Pulitzer Prize.
Obama’s looming “Profile in Courage”?
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3 responses to “Obama’s looming “Profile in Courage”?”
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Groveton, You say that we will continue to need fiscal "stimulus" for some time. What does that mean? Are you arguing for stimulus in the Krugmanian sense — we need bigger deficits right now? Or in the sense that we still need to achieve a balanced budget (or a surplus, if you are a true Keynesian) during the growth phase of the business cycle, but we need to get there slowly so as to avoid tipping the economy back into recession?
If you believe the former, all I can say is, "We're all lost. If we've lost Groveton, we've lost the battle."
If you believe the latter, then I'm totally with you. There is no way to reduce the budget deficit by $1 trillion in a $14 trillion economy without doing great damage. Here's the tricky part: We have to shave down the budget deficit faster than Obama's blueprint as found in his budget deficit.
A technical aside: While Hoover did commence deficit spending on a grand scale, he did not "fire up the printing presses," a phrase normally construed to mean that he increased the money supply. To the contrary, the Federal Reserve severely contracted the money supply, an action that, with Hoover's signing of the Smoot-Hawley tariff, turned a normal business recession into a full-fledged depression.
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Once upon a time I played football at Groveton High School. I played a few positions but was often lined up as a safety on defense. Sometimes, I had to call the defensive plays. Sometimes I called an all out blitz. When that happened we had to blitz. Everybody in the backfield. No hesitation. No tentativeness. Sometimes it worked. Usually it did not. However, once the blitz was called there was no turning back. If we started blitzing and then held up it didn't matter what play we called – we were going to get our butts kicked.
Obama called an all out blitz. I think it's the wrong call. However, once called, we have to finish the blitz. The blitz has some small chance of working. Stopping in the middle of a blitz is doomed to fail.
Sometimes you are past the point of no return. For the next few years, with the stimulus, we are past that point. Our best bet (given where we are) is to hope the 10% chance that the New Kenyesians are right comes true. The alternative is an almost guaranteed depression.
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Here are the stats I have on Hoover –
Spend, spend, spend (with deficits, deficits, deficits) – For the federal fiscal year July 1929 – June 1930 tax receipts were $4.1B, outlays were $3.3B, the surplus was +$.7B or +0.8% of GDP. Two years later from July 1931 – June 1932 tax receipts were $1.9B, outlays were $4.7B, the deficit was -$2.7B or -4.0% of GDP. Two years after that, from July 1933 – June 1934 tax receipts were $3.0 B, outlays were $6.5B, the deficit was -$3.6B or -5.9% of GDP.
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