On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 5:32 AM, Dana wrote: > ok well. I think Keynes was on the right track, personally. He did > only engineer the end of the Depression. The whole Laffner curve thing > is mostly dismissed anymore. If there were any validity to it the last > twenty years or so would have demonstrated it.
The last twenty years were very good economically. Low inflation, a couple of mild recessions, lots of growth, and today in industrialized nations, people have all sorts of benefits and conveniences that no one, even the super-rich, had twenty years ago. That doesn't sound bad to me. In fact it sounds like the standard of living has gone up a lot. > Bush the Elder called > it right: it's voodoo economics, mostly based, I add, on individuals' > wish to lower their own tax bill. So we have people who pay a couple > of hundred less championing policies that cost the government billions > in corporate taxes. Your argument is based on the notion that giving money to the government is a good thing and that the people having to pay more are just whiners. That is a notion with which I fundamentally disagree. > To be very very specific -- let's assume (to your benefit) that there > is some validity to the crowding-out effect. I am not sure that's > true, but I'll give it to you just so you have some sort of point on > your side. You still lose the benefit of the multiplier effect, and > you still run the risk of a) triggering inflation if the economy > overheats and/or b) triggering recession as scared money gets pulled > out of the economy and plunked into Swiss bank accounts. Inflation happens, recessions happen. The Federal Reserve exists to balance these forces. So we are addressing reality, not theory. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:268311 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
