What does the Great Depression teach us?

[AztecWilliam]

One thing is the fact that people who run businesses need to know what the rules of the road are and will be in the future. If you don't know what to expect, you probably will be reluctant to take chances with your hard earned cash.

Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man (which chronicles the Great Depression and FDR's attempts to deal with it), focuses in the linked article on the question of expectations. Specifically, she deals with the problem facing business leaders who simply don't know what to expect from the federal government next year or the year after that. This is a piece that our President and his advisers (non of whom really knows anything about how economies work) should read carefully.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/08/AR2010070804272.html

AzWm










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[aztecwin]

One big difference between now and then is that it is not taking us near as long to figure out what the problem is. Just the fact that less than two years into this Obama Economy, we are poised to throw Democrats in Congress out and handcuff Obama. That alone is not enough. We must have senseable and sure policy concerning the taxing and regulation of business.

[The Great Aztec Joe]

TAX the RICH. They can afford it.

[AztecWilliam]

Jul 17, 2010 14:52:15 GMT -8 The Great Aztec Joe said:

TAX the RICH. They can afford it.

Well, that takes care of that! ;D

Seriously, Joe, that would take care of nothing. We need to maintain an economy in which the private sector is vibrant and left free to innovate. The more that is taxed, the greater is the portion of our economy controlled by the government. The more the government regulates, the more resources private industry has to expend in operating according to those regulations (on that second point, an example is the new financial law will add over 200 new regulations that will burden all companies, but especially small ones.)

The government does not create jobs. The government spends money supplied by taxpayers.

The government has an essential role to play, but deciding who wins and who loses in the economic realm is not part of that role. Sadly, we are inching toward being a true crony capitalist state.

AzWm

[The Great Aztec Joe]

Oh My Gosh, William! YOu mean you do not support me in my cause to demand that Obama reorganize the United States into a modern Socialist Utopia???

Nothin' could be finer.