From: Travis
Subject: Is This America's Dark Knight?
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009,
**
*See Also...*
*Dress Like the Great Depression <http://mises.org/story/3372> by Jeffrey A.
Tucker*
*In Praise of Professor
Cleveland<http://blog.mises.org/archives/009581.asp>on the Mises.org
Blog
*
Is This America's Dark Knight?
*Mises Daily* by Paul A.
Cleveland<http://mises.org/articles.aspx?AuthorId=811>| Posted on
3/10/2009
[image: America's Dark Knight: Welcome to a World without Rules]
In last year's hit movie, *The Dark Knight*, there is a classic scene
between Alfred and Bruce Wayne. A befuddled Bruce cannot figure out what the
Joker is actually trying to gain, and he is sharing his consternation with
Alfred. Alfred responds by telling Bruce that some men are just different
and, in one of the great lines of the movie, states bluntly, "Some men just
want to see the world burn."
While it is quite early on in the new administration's term in office, it
appears to be behaving in exactly this way. Obama is playing the part of the
Joker to perfection, aided and abetted by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and
Harry Reid. The only difference being that, instead of wearing a clown's
face, he has chosen to look promising and speak lofty words of nothingness
as he and the other Democratic leaders push the nation ever closer to
economic collapse.
Ignoring any sound economic principles, these leaders have carved a path of
prodigality unmatched in American history. It seems as if they desire the
total economic failure of the country.
To be sure, the Bush administration has left the nation ravaged by its
excess spending and monetary expansion that undergirded the housing bubble.
Indeed, during his eight years in office, federal spending ballooned from
$1.8 trillion per year to nearly $3 trillion. That is a 67% increase! But
while Bush radically expanded the size and scope of government, Obama and
the Democrats plan the absolute explosion of it. The Congressional Budget
Office estimates that this year's federal spending will top $3.5 trillion,
with a deficit in excess of $1 trillion. And this number was forecasted *
prior* to the passage of the so-called "stimulus bill."
Imagine Bush as a drunken sailor in port for the first time in a year. He
goes into a casino in Atlantic City, sits down at a thousand-dollar-a-hand
blackjack table, and promptly loses a million dollars. Obama comes in as
Bush's replacement, and the casino seats him in Bush's old chair. While
bemoaning the situation, Obama tells us we must end this failed policy by
moving up to the *ten-thousand*-a-hand table and doubling down. Of course,
this makes no sense whatsoever, and the sane person would quickly back away.
But sanity appears not to be present anywhere in Washington these days.
For far too long now, we have allowed our leaders to take us in this
direction. In earlier days our leaders did so mainly to line their own
pockets and those of their favored friends. These days, however, it seems
that they are merely driven by their own ideological madness. And we have
been too busy to pay enough attention to understand the situation and to
resist it. Neither Bush nor Obama could do the things they have done or are
doing had there not been a long history of governmental abuses. To not
understand this now will lead to even greater abuse in the future.
[image: Unmasking the Sacred Lies
cover]<http://www.mises.org/store/Unmasking-the-Sacred-Lies-P569.aspx>
This was my motivation for my new book, titled *Unmasking the Sacred
Lies*<http://www.mises.org/store/Unmasking-the-Sacred-Lies-P569.aspx>.
I wanted to help busy Americans come to grips with the current economic
situation and to understand the long political process of change that has
led us here.
If there is to be any hope for our economic future, we must come to a sound
understanding of what got us here. With that in mind, I put together a book
that paints the big picture. It traces the economic history of each policy
area in order to demonstrate how each law passed by Congress and enforced by
our government has pushed us into this hole that we find ourselves in today.
It is my firm belief that providing the average person with the right
information in a readily understandable format can make a difference. I only
hope that it is not too late, and that we do not have to watch America burn.
[VIEW THIS ARTICLE ONLINE] <http://mises.org/story/3354>
___________________________
Paul Cleveland teaches economics at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama.
Send him mail <[email protected]%5d>. See his article
archives<http://mises.org/articles.aspx?AuthorId=811>.
Comment on the blog <http://blog.mises.org/archives/009580.asp>.
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