RUTHFULLY YOURS

To understand one of the major reasons for American economic decline, one has to come to terms with the dangerous appeasement policies practiced by those amongst the American governing class known as “reasonable moderates.” It is an appeasement policy based on the arrogant assumption that America is so rich and its democratic system so invulnerable that it can afford to pay any price to buy off vocal minorities opposed to democratic capitalism. Amazingly, the obvious recent difficulties of the American economy caused them no second thoughts as demonstrated by recent waste laden compromise tax bill and the Fed’s insistence on continuing with the already failed policy of quantitative easing.

Those taking heart from the successful defeat of the pork laden 2000 page omnibus bill better pay attention to David Brooks’ column Bigger Is Easier in which he argues that the American economy is strong enough to enable Barack Obama to waste another fortune on appeasing his leftist central planning advocates.

The economy is strong enough for policy makers to think beyond the immediate crisis but not so strong that it allays the national fear of decline. . ..To get the left excited, Obama might offer an activist growth agenda. This would involve spending more on infrastructure, research and job training — the basic things he has always talked about. But it also would mean going further and embracing industrial policy.

Personally, I don’t think the government is very good at investing in green energy, Midwestern job growth or other things. But many liberals do believe this. Smart economists like Dani Rodrik and Jeff Faux have been hatching what they call smart industrial policy proposals. Others have talked about learning from the Chinese and Singaporeans. If Obama showed some support for this kind of stuff, he’d generate enormous excitement on the left.

Nowhere does Brooks mention that the money thrown at the autocracy loving leftist would have to be borrowed from China. He views such baseless as exploitable fears of the ignorant masses. He is not alone. His views are shared by those who thing that $3 gasoline is fine as are higher food prices caused by Ethenol subsidies or excluding vast regions of land and see from profitable exploration.

Clearly, the havoc caused by the anti-business policies of the Obama administration taught them nothing. Their man at the Fed is making sure that their stocks are up. As for the rest of us, here is a bit of excellent news: Shale-Gas Output May Double by 2035, Reducing Energy Imports, U.S. Says Of course, to the delight of the Arabs, Russians and Venezuelans, Brooks and company may just find a way to prevent profitable shale gas development, too. For their callous arrogance does not seem to know bounds.

For more, see my HNN blog Deja Vu