Extra, extra! Sarah Palin is exactly what you thought she was!

[scaeagles]

Well, lets look at just that - presuming you are referring to the depression....

My favorite economist, among others I could link to but won't bother, dispute the commonly held view on government spending and the effects on great depression. A quote from the first paragraph of the link above, being itself a quote from FDR's treasury secretary -

We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. ... We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... and an enormous debt to boot!

We can debate the point ad infinitum, and I'm certain we could all link to economists supporting out particular point of view. My point is simply that it is certainly not uniform agreement.

As far as cash on hand....I attempted to find links to what I alluded to in the above, and in the 2 minutes I spent could not, so I will withdraw that for now.

The effects of the Obama stimulus packages have done.....nothing. Perhaps even made it worse. When he was pushing hard to get it passed, though he and his administration have now admitted (they kind of had to) that their predictions were wrong, he said if it was passed unemployment would peak at below 8% (a projection, certainly - it was not a promise). He was off by a factor of 25%. He gets away with saying that it would have been worse, but that's certainly not provable.

So, no....I do not believe bigger government is the answer to coming out of economic difficulties. In fact, I believe it has made it worse.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

As far as cash on hand....I attempted to find links to what I alluded to in the above, and in the 2 minutes I spent could not, so I will withdraw that for now.

They're out there (I'm leaving for a weekend in Santa Barbara in five minutes so I don't have time to track them down) but you can find other research as well that shows that such large scale uncertainty really doesn't seem to have much impact on business decisions.

So, no....I do not believe bigger government is the answer to coming out of economic difficulties. In fact, I believe it has made it worse.

I don't necessarily believe that bigger government is the answer to all economic issues, however, small government is not politically viable when people are out of work. It is not politically acceptable for either party to just say "Well, there was a bubble and the economy was about 10% bigger than it was so we'll just have to sit back while it deflates but to where it should have been and then it'll start growing organically then. Yes, it sucks that unemployment will be 10-13% during that period but it really is the best way to let the economy get back on track for consistent long term growth."

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

My favorite economist, among others I could link to but won't bother, dispute the commonly held view on government spending and the effects on great depression.

And there are many economists who would disagree with yours.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by JWBear

And there are many economists who would disagree with yours.

Right...which is why right after the link I wrote:

Originally Posted by scaeagles

We can debate the point ad infinitum, and I'm certain we could all link to economists supporting out particular point of view. My point is simply that it is certainly not uniform agreement.