Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, October 13, 2008
Replace Ronald Reagan with John McCain???
I found the article below on Wikipedia and thought of an interesting experiment. Since McCain has espoused that Ronald Reagan is his hero and that he was some kind of mad presidential genius, let's conduct an exercise. I have listened to McCain's policy speeches and found that if you were to replace Reagan with McCain in the paragraphs below, we could take a glimpse into the future through the wiki-portal of the past. As a matter of fact, you could probably replace Reagan with Bush and have a pretty accurate depiction of the Republican economic policy for the last 30 years. It's not all doom and glooom, but it certainly doesn't demonstrate the change in govt I surely hope we are about to have with an Obama presidency.
Here is the original:
"During Reagan's tenure, income tax rates of the top personal tax bracket dropped from 70% to 28% in 7 years,[9] while payroll taxes increased as well as the effective tax rates on the lower two income quintiles.[10][11] Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recovered strongly after the 1982 recession and grew during Reagan's remaining years in office at an annual rate of 3.4% per year,[12] slightly lower than the post-World War II average of 3.6%.[13] Unemployment peaked at over 10.7% percent in 1982 then dropped during the rest of Reagan's terms, and inflation significantly decreased.[14] A net job increase of about 16 million also occurred (about the rate of population growth).
The policies were derided by some as "Trickle-down economics,"[15] due to the significant cuts in the upper tax brackets. There was a massive increase in Cold War related defense spending that caused large budget deficits,[16] the U.S. trade deficit expansion,[16] and contributed to the Savings and Loan crisis,[17] as well as the stock market crash of 1987. In order to cover new federal budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, raising the national debt from $700 billion to $3 trillion,[18] and the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation.[19] Reagan described the new debt as the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency.[18]"
Here is the view through the looking glass:
During McCain's tenure, income tax rates of the top personal tax bracket dropped from 70% to 28% in 7 years,[9] while payroll taxes increased as well as the effective tax rates on the lower two income quintiles.[10][11] Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recovered strongly after the 2008 recession and grew during McCain's remaining years in office at an annual rate of 3.4% per year,[12] slightly lower than the post-World War II average of 3.6%.[13] Unemployment peaked at over 10.7% percent in 2010 then dropped during the rest of McCain's terms, and inflation significantly decreased.[14] A net job increase of about 16 million also occurred (about the rate of population growth).
The policies were derided by some as "Trickle-down economics,"[15] due to the significant cuts in the upper tax brackets. There was a massive increase in Cold War related defense spending that caused large budget deficits,[16] the U.S. trade deficit expansion,[16] and contributed to the Savings and Loan crisis,[17] as well as the stock market crash of 1987. In order to cover new federal budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, raising the national debt from $700 billion to $3 trillion,[18] and the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation.[19] McCain described the new debt as the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency.[18]"
Here is the original:
"During Reagan's tenure, income tax rates of the top personal tax bracket dropped from 70% to 28% in 7 years,[9] while payroll taxes increased as well as the effective tax rates on the lower two income quintiles.[10][11] Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recovered strongly after the 1982 recession and grew during Reagan's remaining years in office at an annual rate of 3.4% per year,[12] slightly lower than the post-World War II average of 3.6%.[13] Unemployment peaked at over 10.7% percent in 1982 then dropped during the rest of Reagan's terms, and inflation significantly decreased.[14] A net job increase of about 16 million also occurred (about the rate of population growth).
The policies were derided by some as "Trickle-down economics,"[15] due to the significant cuts in the upper tax brackets. There was a massive increase in Cold War related defense spending that caused large budget deficits,[16] the U.S. trade deficit expansion,[16] and contributed to the Savings and Loan crisis,[17] as well as the stock market crash of 1987. In order to cover new federal budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, raising the national debt from $700 billion to $3 trillion,[18] and the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation.[19] Reagan described the new debt as the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency.[18]"
Here is the view through the looking glass:
During McCain's tenure, income tax rates of the top personal tax bracket dropped from 70% to 28% in 7 years,[9] while payroll taxes increased as well as the effective tax rates on the lower two income quintiles.[10][11] Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recovered strongly after the 2008 recession and grew during McCain's remaining years in office at an annual rate of 3.4% per year,[12] slightly lower than the post-World War II average of 3.6%.[13] Unemployment peaked at over 10.7% percent in 2010 then dropped during the rest of McCain's terms, and inflation significantly decreased.[14] A net job increase of about 16 million also occurred (about the rate of population growth).
The policies were derided by some as "Trickle-down economics,"[15] due to the significant cuts in the upper tax brackets. There was a massive increase in Cold War related defense spending that caused large budget deficits,[16] the U.S. trade deficit expansion,[16] and contributed to the Savings and Loan crisis,[17] as well as the stock market crash of 1987. In order to cover new federal budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, raising the national debt from $700 billion to $3 trillion,[18] and the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation.[19] McCain described the new debt as the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency.[18]"
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
How did we get here? How do we move forward?
Milton Friedman's economic philosophy has had a tremendous influence on the financial policies of many govt's around the world; especially the United States, from the Reagan and Bush Administration's to one of our current presidential nominee's, John McCain. We may have seen the domino effect of these policies, both in boom and down times throughout the world; no easier than over the last month. I am no economist, but I do agree with many of his social and anti-gov't principles. However, the recent reaction of our gov't and it's desire to keep us from another depression seems to stem directly from Friedman.
"The Fed was largely responsible for converting what might have been a garden-variety recession, although perhaps a fairly severe one, into a major catastrophe. Instead of using its powers to offset the depression, it presided over a decline in the quantity of money by one-third from 1929 to 1933 ... Far from the depression being a failure of the free-enterprise system, it was a tragic failure of government."
—Milton Friedman, Two Lucky People, 233
Yes, he was anti-regulation of all sorts. Yes, he is Ron Paul's Libertarian, illegitimate grand pappy!!! But was Friedman's philosophy, although poorly executed and cherry-picked for conservative tastes, what put our country and the world in this position? Will his answer to the current crisis, spoken above from the grave, be a new economic solution or just stem the tide of the inevitable, devastating downfall the world economy is teetering upon??? Most importantly, to the "average American" deciding on the election ahead, does the current economic crisis reflect a need for change or a stay-the-course philosophy solidly supported by McCain, Palin, Bush, Reagan and so on? Will McCain lead us forward or is he propagating the failed policies of the past. I leave you with this to think about.
In Friedman's last email interview in 2006, he said that the greatest threat to the world's economy is "Islamofascism, with terrorism as its weapon". In an in-person interview with both his wife and him in that same month, he said that he opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq: "What's really killed the Republican Party isn't spending, it's Iraq. As it happens, I was opposed to going into Iraq from the beginning. I think it was a mistake, for the simple reason that I do not believe the United States of America ought to be involved in aggression." His wife disagreed that it was aggression. However, after a short argument with his wife, he added "But, having said that, once we went in to Iraq, it seems to me very important that we make a success of it."
"The Fed was largely responsible for converting what might have been a garden-variety recession, although perhaps a fairly severe one, into a major catastrophe. Instead of using its powers to offset the depression, it presided over a decline in the quantity of money by one-third from 1929 to 1933 ... Far from the depression being a failure of the free-enterprise system, it was a tragic failure of government."
—Milton Friedman, Two Lucky People, 233
Yes, he was anti-regulation of all sorts. Yes, he is Ron Paul's Libertarian, illegitimate grand pappy!!! But was Friedman's philosophy, although poorly executed and cherry-picked for conservative tastes, what put our country and the world in this position? Will his answer to the current crisis, spoken above from the grave, be a new economic solution or just stem the tide of the inevitable, devastating downfall the world economy is teetering upon??? Most importantly, to the "average American" deciding on the election ahead, does the current economic crisis reflect a need for change or a stay-the-course philosophy solidly supported by McCain, Palin, Bush, Reagan and so on? Will McCain lead us forward or is he propagating the failed policies of the past. I leave you with this to think about.
In Friedman's last email interview in 2006, he said that the greatest threat to the world's economy is "Islamofascism, with terrorism as its weapon". In an in-person interview with both his wife and him in that same month, he said that he opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq: "What's really killed the Republican Party isn't spending, it's Iraq. As it happens, I was opposed to going into Iraq from the beginning. I think it was a mistake, for the simple reason that I do not believe the United States of America ought to be involved in aggression." His wife disagreed that it was aggression. However, after a short argument with his wife, he added "But, having said that, once we went in to Iraq, it seems to me very important that we make a success of it."
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Never film a concert with a Blackberry
This is supposed to be a Radiohead show from a weeks back. Jeez!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Give Metal a chance!
Since this blog is focused on, well, whatever I think is interesting at any given moment, I couldn't help but throw this nugget out there for those who don't pay attention to NPR.
I am a big music fan and metal is no exception. Music and politics have long been at odds. Throw in the Middle East/ Islam and the general public may immediately think you've got a rabid stew of anarchy and Guantanamo poster children ready for the mainstream export of immoral, anti-christian ideas. This crock pot of culture is at least interesting and at best, absolutely fascinating. Check this link below...
How Heavy Metal is working it's way into Islam
I am a big music fan and metal is no exception. Music and politics have long been at odds. Throw in the Middle East/ Islam and the general public may immediately think you've got a rabid stew of anarchy and Guantanamo poster children ready for the mainstream export of immoral, anti-christian ideas. This crock pot of culture is at least interesting and at best, absolutely fascinating. Check this link below...
How Heavy Metal is working it's way into Islam
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Add me...
