The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Fred Barnes Nails Obamanomics

Text Size

Fred Barnes has a brilliant dissection of what Obama's language regarding economics says about his frightening beliefs about (or ignorance of) how economies work. Barnes is right on target, and timely, and his piece is important. Barnes does not say it, by the way, but the command-and contol "industrial policy" Barnes describes, when combined with the actual details of Obama's national service plan, and when combined with new proposals to give the executive branch authority to take over businesses in industries other than banking, has more than a passing resemblance to the economics of Mussolini. OR see this, from Wikipedia on "the econmoics of fascism, the section called "the political economy of fascist Italy," the paragraphs starting thusly:

In 1929, Italy was hit hard by the Great Depression. The Italian economy, having just emerged from a period of monetary stabilization, was not ready for this shock. Prices fell and production slowed. Unemployment rose from 300,787 in 1929 to 1,018,953 in 1933.^[37] Trying to handle the crisis, the Fascist government nationalized the holdings of large banks which had accrued significant industrial securities.^[38] The government also issued new securities to provide a source of credit for the banks and began enlisting the help of various cartels (consorzi) that had been created by Italian business leaders since 1922. The government offered recognition and support to these organizations in exchange for promises that they would manipulate prices in accordance with government priorities ....

This topic cries out for a full-length column and lots and lots of talk on the right.....

View all comments (2) | Leave a comment

Bert| 3.26.09 @ 1:56PM

No offense, Mr. Hillyer, but I hope you are not just now awaking to the fascism inherent in the current approach to government in the U.S.

Fascism is a form of socialism in which nominal ownership of the means of production is left in private hands, but all control rests with government. Communism is arguably the more "honest" form of socialism because it engages in no pretense; rather, productive capacity is directly owned by the State.

Racism is not an element of fascism. When an American politician is accused of being fascist, he/she often hides behind the straw-man. After all, he/she is not Hitler! But one need not be Hitler to be a fascist.

By the standard definitions, which you ably allude to in your reference to Mussolini's Italy, the U.S. has been heading down this road at least since F.D.R. Few presidents since then have done anything other than increase the power of the executive branch's control over private industry (Reagan was arguably an exception, but even he found it impossible to control the entirety of the executive bureaucracy in this regard).

So, yes, we are experiencing fascism. It can happen here. It always ends the same way; in misery and death. This is what nationalized healthcare will bring: misery and death when price controls on medical services and drugs have their inevitable consequence: shortages and rationing. At the margins, people will die.

You are correct that this cries out for lots and lots of talk, but hopefully more. People must use what remains of our democratic process to resist this. It is vitally important that those who understand that statism is a philosophy of failure stand up and say so. I am amazed (well, no, not really) that the GOP seems unable to find its voice in this regard, but perhaps there is someone out there somewhere who has as much courage as the Czech EU president.

D. Codevilla| 3.26.09 @ 2:47PM

Mr. Hillyer and Mr. Bert (the previous commenter) are dead-on. Obama's policies and beliefs are as close to Mussolinian fascism as the U.S. has seen since FDR, though (fortunately for now) far less disciplined. Very much on point as well is the Italian term "parastatale," which was first used widely in fascist Italy. The term referred to nominally private companies that were, in function, arms of and entirely beholden to the government. GM, Chrysler, AIG, the various TARP-infused banks, and many others, certainly qualify as "parastatale," to their lasting shame. It would do us all good to read up on both the 1919-1920 seizure of power by Mussolini, and the post 1929 actions in what turned out to be the "best" days of his doomed regime.