Monday, November 19, 2012

Amity Shlaes — 2013 Looks a Lot Like 1937 in Four Fearsome Ways

The obvious question is why an announcement by Obama or Roosevelt to cut back just after the election doesn’t reassure those who dislike government expansion.
Wary Markets
The answer is that the markets, which observe a giant march forward and then a step backward, don’t believe the step back is permanent. Giants are giants. Expansionists tend to revert to expanding government, as FDR did, most drastically, in World War II. The mandate matters more than the austerity chatter.
Fascinating post about the depression within a depression in 1937 that gets it almost 100% wrong. That's no big accomplishment in today's journalism, but it is still remarkable that ideological blinders can be so effective at numbing one's brain.

Bloomberg
2013 Looks a Lot Like 1937 in Four Fearsome Ways
By Amity Shlaes

UPDATE: Noah Smith tweets: "Amity Shlaes is a battalion commander in the Republican War on Reality."

7 comments:

mike norman said...

Amity Shlaes is one of the worst. Her rationalizations simply amaze in the degree to which they twist reality. As a propagandist for the neoliberal agenda, none are better than her, however.

paul meli said...

Amity Shlaes is one of those faux experts that has been manufactured by the right-wing to propagate bullshit.

She is a historian not an economist…her arguments don't stand up against the mildest scrutiny, yet her "green cheese" thinking is presented as a legitimate point of view.

It will take millions of funerals to slow this wave of propaganda. We don't have a chance for the time being.

I never thought I would see the name of this charlatan on this website. I think I'm going to be sick.

Anonymous said...

The obvious question is why an announcement by Obama or Roosevelt to cut back just after the election doesn’t reassure those who dislike government expansion. Amity Shales

Technically speaking, it is not government expansion that is needed but Federal money. Why? So the population can more easily pay their debts to the government-backed credit cartel which has driven them into debt with negative real interest rates, especially in housing.

The fairest way to get that new money into the economy is to simply hand it out equally to the entire population, including non-debtors. And to preclude it triggering another bubble then raise reserve requirements in step with the new reserves and don't allow the Fed to create new reserves for the banks.

Matt Franko said...

Here is her "4 fearsome ways":

1. Pre-election spree that sets records; (metaphor)

2. Bath of cold water afterward.
(metaphor)

3. Fearsome attack on the status quo. (metaphor)

4. Fallout from first-term legislation. (metaphor)

Matt Franko said...

frlbane,

"The fairest way to get that new money into the economy is to simply hand it out equally to the entire population, "

Do you mean just like the $650 tax rebate that Bush-Cheney did to all taxpayers (bottom up) with none going to high income earners (> $120K household) in mid-2008?

rsp,

Anonymous said...

Do you mean just like the $650 tax rebate that Bush-Cheney did to all taxpayers (bottom up) with none going to high income earners (> $120K household) in mid-2008? Matt Franko

Yes, but much more so. And not just to taxpayers, but to the entire adult population. Also, I would forbid further credit creation by the banks (at least while new fiat is being given away) so that the repayment of existing credit debt would create a massive hole in the money supply that a carefully metered Federal fiat giveaway would neatly fill.

Also, as a little joke* and to preclude cries of "Unfair!", I would not means test the giveaway but give all US adults the same amount.

* Giving the same amount to the rich would be a trifling addition to their wealth while the giveaway to the poor would greatly reduce the rich-poor wealth ratio.

Matt Franko said...

More metaphor:

" tried to capture the problem of the big- government president by titling one of his books “When Government Plays God.” His advisers warned him to suppress the title, arguing it might offend. Anderson shifted to the more banal: “Economics and the Public Welfare.” But Anderson’s phrase still reverberates: A government that “plays God,” or at least “plays powerhouse,” can spook markets and employers, whatever the decade."

No one "is playing God" (metaphor)

Here is the Lord and a Centurion having a conversation about civil authority:

"9 For I also am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me, and I am saying to this one, 'Go,' and he is going, and to another, 'Come,' and he is coming, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he is doing it."
10 Now, hearing it, Jesus marvels. And He said to those following, "Verily, I am saying to you, With no one in Israel so much faith did I find."

According to the Lord here, a recognition of civil authority was the highest manifestation of faith....

So I dont see what these people are so afraid of....

rsp,