October 20, 2009

Response to Two Trillion Tons Video

I received this email from a friend of mine who lives in Japan and wasn't particularly happy with this video I posted on Sunday:

http://shortarmguy.blogspot.com/2009/10/two-trillion-tons.html

Hi Todd,


Loved the dog playing basketball video. We have a little chihuahua and I'd love to teach him to do some amusing trick like that.

Have to admit I wasn't so crazy about the The Ghost of Tennessee Ernie Ford clip. Conservatives are now complaining about deficits? Did they have laryngitis for 8 years while Bush rang up the largest deficits in the history of the country?

If you follow some of the economists who have a decent track record, like Paul Krugman (if you've got a few minutes, this piece is quite illuminating http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06Economic-t.html?_r=1, Dean Baker  (http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press), Nouriel Roubini, etc., the Obama administration had no choice but to spend heavily to keep the economy from completely collapsing. The Bush administration also knew this and you can see this by looking at the increased spending (stimulus and bailouts) at the end of their term.

Another line in the lyrics (by the way, this was written by Lars Larson, a complete a#&hole who cut his teeth in Portland, Oregon when we lived there) says "No recovery but deeper in debt." Somebody might want to tell that to Wall St. (up about 55% last time I checked) and the statisticians that track the economy. There are still huge problems, but compared to where we were 6-12 months ago, it's hard to say there's been no recovery. I personally was scared enough of a collapse that I pulled almost all my investments out of the market.

As for the dollar being trash, part of the reason we're in the mess we're in is because both Democratic and Republican administrations have had a "strong dollar" policy. The dollar has been overvalued. An overvalued dollar makes imports cheap and exports expensive. That's why we've had ever-increasing trade deficits for many years. I'm sure you've heard the US complain about China manipulating its currency to keep it cheap. The US has done the opposite. If the currency markets were free, one of the basic rules of economics would take hold and the US dollar's value would sharply drop. That's what happens by nature when you have trade imbalances. That's not Obama's fault. That's a legacy he's inherited. If we think the Chinese gain an unfair advantage by having a cheap currency, why wouldn't we also want that?

Obama governing from the Left and playing from Marx's book? Oh, please! Most liberals are quite disappointed with how centrist he's been.

"I work hard for my money, this I don't deserve... " Right...Americans ran up enormous personal debt and have probably less financial discipline than politicians...maybe they really are getting what they deserve?

Sorry for the rant, but I just had to see mis-information being spread. Too many people buy into it too easily.

KBJ



The Ghost of Tennessee Ernie Ford

Lyrics by Jim Gossett and Lars Larson, Westwood Radio One

Obama got elected, now there is no end;
The Democrats wanna to tax and spend,

Tax and spend us into bankruptcy,
With a tax-cheat runnin' our Treasury.

You spend two trillion bucks...
what do you get?
No recovery but deeper in debt

St. Peter better call me fore its too late;
I owe my soul to the welfare state!

Obama is a leftist, as he can't deny;
Govern from the center, was a great big lie,

Karl Marx Manifest is his playbook,
And you and me soon will be on the hook.

You're spendin' two trillion bucks...
in unsecured cash,
Soon the dollar will be pure trash.

Our bondholders we have to appease;
We owe our soul to the Red Chinese.

Obama and his people are makin' a mess,
Bernanke's fired up the printin' press,

Printin' money that don't exist,
No wonder America is gettin' peeved!

You spend two trillion bucks,
They ain't done yet!

Obama and Pelosi (are) pilin' up the debt
I work hard for my money,
this I don't deserve...
We owe our souls...
to the Federal Reserve!

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