“Spart. Understand. Greenspan… Paulson… Bernanke… Geithner… they’re all incompetents – at least if you look at the evidence, the outcomes, and then give them the “credit.”

………..yep Paulson, Bernanke and Geithner only averted the complete collapse of the US financial system but apart from that they are incompetent…….a bit late to the party perhaps but that’s the worst one can say about them……Greenspan was incompetent because he was the prisoner of ideology….take note Baarking…..it’s ultimately fatal

“I typically just rely on Sinz…”

(*GRIN*) Poor, poor, Sinz; he typically has more folks taking more shots at him from more different directions than even I could ever hope to aspire to.

“Seriously, you make a fair point. We all could pull out an expert here and there that will corroborate our specific view of things.”

It’s not that, Spart, it’s really not. I mean think about it… OBVIOUSLY I’m exposed on a daily basis to “mainstream” group think. While you can avoid “my” sources I can’t really “avoid” yours. (*SHRUG*)

(I know… I know… simplistic, yes… but you “get” where I’m coming from. Nor am I accusing you of not being well informed; you obviously are. I’m simply sharing some of my “go to” sites in terms of getting a wide range of views.)

(Oh… and by the way… LewRockwell.com – as one example – is a site where you’re as like to get what someone like Sinz would consider a “far Left” analysis from as a “far Right.” That’s the thing about so many of these discussions… sometimes the “far” Left and “far” Right are closer than the “moderates” are to EITHER Left or Right.)

“It was not my intent to suggest that there aren’t experts who hold a different view, but I’m not aware of many with large followings who question the efficacy of govt spending during a recession.”

I understand that. What I’m trying to get across to you is that most of these so-called “experts” are wrong – they’re just plan wrong. Whenever and wherever their prescriptions have been tried they’ve failed.

Spart. Understand. Greenspan… Paulson… Bernanke… Geithner… they’re all incompetents – at least if you look at the evidence, the outcomes, and then give them the “credit.”

Give my sources a try. Give ‘em a few weeks – maybe a month. See what you see. Heck… take notes… match your own predictions to theirs… and in a year or two compare the two.

Now I’m not speaking of any one guy or gal being 100% right all the time… but as I offered originally, there are folks like Tamny and Schiff whom I agree with 80%+ of the time and who have actual records to look back on to see how their predictions have fared over the years.

BILL

I typically just rely on Sinz:)

Seriously, you make a fair point. We all could pull out an expert here and there that will corroborate our specific view of things. It was not my intent to suggest that there aren’t experts who hold a different view, but I’m not aware of many with large followings who question the efficacy of govt spending during a recession.

……..Weren’t Fannie/Freddie “nationalized” by the Bush admin?……..Summers and Obama are having to clean up the mess

…………..This is their big problem……they have chained themselves to a host of flawed doctrines and shibboleths that they (and that means people like Frum) inculcated into their followers and now they can’t break loose from them…….thus we have economic geniuses like Baarking and gspurlock who think it’s a good idea to slash spending in the middle of a recession……or that supply side actually works….or that attacking science based solutions is good policy……nuttiness has taken them hostage which is why if they’re still in this situation when it gets down to the short strokes of an election next year and given that the economy will be rolling along and Obama and the Dems will have all the pictures of the Republicans committing the crimes to stop it recovering they are in dire trouble

File Under: “I wish it were otherwise.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574344700380597382.html

I respectfully suggest you click on the link and read the piece.

BILL

Absolutely. As I’ve said many times before, the Right has become a slave to its ideology. The GOP policies over the past 30 years (which were all sold as an implementation of their ideologies) have resulted in bigger govt, more deficits, falling personal incomes, weakened international standing and more government intrusion.

They can’t escape the fact that their ideologies, when translated into actual policy, resulted in failure, yet they’re unwilling to accept that other ideologies/policies have succeeded, as demonstrated in Europe and even in some states here. When presented the empirical data, they quickly retreat to theories and ideologies while ignoring the real-world facts. They simply cannot come up with solutions for practical problems without offending their ideology.

It’s like still believing the world is flat and the sun revolves around the earth.

“We can still and need to repeal all of the unspent funding in the Stimulus Package, the Omnibus Spending Bill and to recall the Budget for a major pruning job.”

Yep. IF Republicans can take back one or both Houses of Congress next year we can start reversing the spending binge as early as 2011.

(*SHRUG*) It’s 2009.

(*SHRUG*) It’s gonna be one tough year and a half.

Republican candidates better campaign on cutting spending. If they do they’ll win. No everywhere, obviously, but in enough places.

Re: Spartacus // Aug 17, 2009 at 1:37 pm (#27) –

Spart. You need to be reading other economists and financial experts! (*GRIN*)

Hey… I recommend John Tamny, Peter Schiff, sites like the Ludwig Von Mises Institute and LewRockwell.com

Also… as always… use your own common sense and judgment. If something an “expert” says just doesn’t make sense to you… perhaps there’s a reason. Perhaps the “expert” is full of $hit or just plain wrong. (*SHRUG*)

http://www.europac.net/externalframeset.asp?from=home&id=16962&type=schiff

BILL

………you have to differentiate as the list does between the rational and paranoid…….it’s uncanny how well it fits certain contributions though…… don’t you think?

Will not face evidence that destroys his theory.