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Special Report
Perpetuating Falsehoods
If only we could go back to “failed policies” of Ronald Wilson Reagan — while the real failed policies are still with us today.
(Page 3 of 3)
Sunlight on the Horizon
Bill Clinton
threw more sawdust into the eyes of the American people at the
Democrat convention, when he said, “No President — not me or any
of my predecessors — could have repaired all the damage in just
four years.”
The truth is that economic recovery is long overdue. Since the Great Depression, and before this latest spooky downturn, recessions in America have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously being 16 months. But we are now 57 months after the last recession started, and still there is no real recovery. They can’t say that is because the recession was so bad, because the American historical experience is the worse the recession the stronger the recovery. Based on this experience, we should be in the third year of a booming economic recovery by now.
Sure Obama apologists have tried to argue based on experience in Third World countries going back as far as 800 years that this time is different because this was a “financial crisis.” But that has not been the American experience, which has been as described above. Moreover, every recession involves some form of financial crisis.
This is why the truth is that a raging economic recovery boom will begin the day Obama is defeated, and the death pall of outdated, braindead Marxism is removed from the face of America.
About the Author
Peter Ferrara is Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Heartland Institute, General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Senior Policy Advisor on Entitlements and Budget Policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Peter Ferrara
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Appleby| 9.26.12 @ 7:27AM
The majority of us were in fact adults 30 years ago. The problem is the generation that knew nothing but the Reagan Expansion and who thought that what goes up will always go up regardless of what they did...and their children who believe, because Generation Whine is their parents, that all you have to do to get Goodies is Demand Them...and whose hopes are pinned on ObamaCare because it will see that their grandparents die before we have spent all their inheritance.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 9.26.12 @ 4:35PM
"and whose hopes are pinned on ObamaCare because it will see that their grandparents die before we have spent all their inheritance."
Now you're cooking with gas- you ought to be writing articles at AS.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 9.26.12 @ 5:04PM
"their grandparents die before we have spent all their inheritance."
...better Granny and Gramps die than us.
Pecos Pete| 9.26.12 @ 7:29AM
Why would anyone vote for Obama? Obama voters like being wards of the government. They like living in government housing and being provided with free food, telephones and TV. Public sector unions will vote for Obama because they will retire at 55 with a very nice pension and health benefits. Private sector unions will vote for Obama because they believe they can return to power ala the UAW and GM/Chrysler.
Class warfare and greed are the foundations of Obama Voters.
Crassus| 9.26.12 @ 10:27PM
"Class warfare and greed are the foundations of Obama Voters."
Stupidity too.
Von Mises Jr| 9.26.12 @ 8:21AM
Peter Ferrara offers a fine overview here of the real versus MSM manufactured economic history of the last thirty years. He is correct that government interference and Fed toying with monetary policy causes booms and busts.
But we must realize that the alternative to the cyclical recoveries is the Great Depression. Continued government interference in farming, steel, railroads, work projects (stimulus) and gold prices by FDR turned a recession into a depression.
This is happening currently with de facto nationalization of banks, student loans, auto manufacturing, health care, energy and Fed money printing. It really boils down to this:
- Romney equals Recovery
- Obama equals a Second Great Depression
PhilTheCapitalistPig| 9.26.12 @ 9:16AM
I always look forward to Peter's writing. Surely one of the most articulate and knowledgable conservatives on our side. This piece is masterful.
sickofit5| 9.26.12 @ 10:34AM
This is what I don't understand about the Romney campaign. They allow Obama to rewrite history and accuse him of being more of the same and then demonize Bush. Romney either has to say that he is not more of the same or that the last 30 years are a lot better than the last three. He should also point out many of the similarities between the Bush and Obama spending showing how similar they are. Romney is allowing Obama to define the past and who he is, wife killer, tax cheat and job exporter without using the multitude of examples that show that Obama does not know who we are, Americans, and we still don't know who he is.
Stkman| 9.26.12 @ 2:24PM
Romney is not allowing Obama to rewrite anything. The MSM is allowing it.
JD| 9.26.12 @ 10:42AM
Ferrara captures the cause of the housing bust well. It wasn't particularly legislation that did it, though. Regulators were able to push their "help the poor get houses" agenda even in the absence of legislation.
This is the Great Depression all over again. First, bad monetary policy combined with bad regulations cause a crash. Next, a weak president (Hoover/Bush) who's not nominally liberal nevertheless tries to buy our way out with government intervention. Then he's replaced by a new guy (FDR/Obama) who promises to be the anti-first guy is elected, and simply doubles down on what his predecessor did wrong, using the crisis to transform America into a more liberal state. This deeply widens and prolongs the recession into depression.
We can only hope that the final step doesn't come to pass - economic pain leading to the election of radical leaders who start a global war.
Unfortunately, the Left has been so successful in distorting history to make FDR seem like a hero that they see today's parallels and think that that makes Obama a good thing.
JD| 9.26.12 @ 10:47AM
Obama keeps whining that the Republicans have nothing but the same idea over and over again for the last 30 years, but the fact is that that idea works whenever it's tried, and we suffer because it's been tried less often than not. Why should we come up with a new idea when the existing one works?
Al Adab| 9.26.12 @ 11:51AM
JD:
Good point. The economic expansion which began in 1983 continued unabated ( Clinton bought in after 1994) for 25 years untill the Congessional change in 2006. Since then old tired policies of envy and redistribution (call it whatever) continue to demonstrate their failures. JFK knew, "A rising tide lifts all ships" and used that to promote his tax cuts. Economic expansion and individual well being comes not from redistribution but from economic growth. Why that fact escapes so many is beyond my ken.
Anthony| 9.26.12 @ 11:48AM
Obozo lied.... the ambassador died.
It wan't the video Obama,
it was you boasting bout Osama.
Butch| 9.26.12 @ 4:47PM
Pretty darn accurate, Mr. Ferrara. Some of us do remember the 70s, with Carter's "20-20" economy, and also remember the 80s through 97. Econ departments in all but the liberal bastions dropped Keynesianism and began teaching supply side and Friedman. Life was good for a long time. Ferrara also nails the source of the original crash: democratic politics in mortgage lending post-06.
But you will never get this through the MSM, and most "independents" will never read this. It would take an advertising genius to compact this message into a 30-second TV spot, even a one-minute spot. The message cries to get out.
Butch| 9.26.12 @ 4:53PM
Started myself thinking: Key statistics (GDP growth, Household wealth growth, Household income growth, unemployment) 1982-2007, then the same statistics for 2008-2012. Then, "It's not the past 30 years that has been the failure, Mr. Obama . . . it's the past four years."
Howard| 9.26.12 @ 11:21PM
I think Keynes is still taught as the mainstay in most liberal arts colleges. I'm not sure he is god like accepted as when I majored in Economics in the early 1970's. But, Keynes still is a standard of most curriculum.
Howard| 9.26.12 @ 11:18PM
Excellent overview of current and prior economic situation. Even today liberal economists pooh pooh Reagan/Volker accomplishments by saying the 1980's were a Keynesian led recovery. This would be owing to deficits during the Reagan years. They are wrong of course, but their minions in the New York Times etc, still pimp for high taxes and heavy handed regulation as the "cure" for economic ailments.
D. Welch| 9.27.12 @ 1:47PM
The case has been made that what fueled the Reagan Thatcher prosperity was cheap energy prices made possible by the Alaskan and North Sea oil fields that smashed OPEC's high prices. Inexpensive energy also fueled the economic prosperity of the 1990's as well.
D. Welch| 9.27.12 @ 1:42PM
This article has a historical quality to it, and really doesn't address our current predicament. The underlying cause of our current difficulties is high energy prices. As economist James Hamilton has pointed out nine out of ten past recessions have been caused by a spike in oil prices. Coupled with the financial crisis in 2008 this has been devastating. High fossil fuel prices choke off economic growth. While finding new sources of oil is somewhat encouraging , there is also a problem. These new sources require that a $90 a barrel price to be profitable--a level that stalls the economy. We are in uncharted territory where neither Keynesian or supply side strategies will work. A sustained period of economic growth may not be possible for a good long time.
Both of our political parties are failing us miserably on telling us the truth about this. To me the real tragedy of this campaign is that the central issue of our time is not being addressed. According the the Hirsch Report and the more recent military report we are on borrowed time. It is time to stop fighting the tired old economic battles of the twentieth century, and seriously consider how to move ahead. People who are interested in learning more may want to read Jeff Rubin's new book, THE END OF GROWTH.