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The Spectacle Blog
Christina Romer, the chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers becomes the first high-profile rodent to leave the foundering economic ship that is Obama's "fundamentally transformed" America.
Apparently Romer took a lesson from the little guy at the bottom of this picture.
Romer, whose best known work before taking the Obama Administration job is probably a paper she wrote with her husband arguing that tax rate hikes are extremely negative for economic growth, then came to DC and all but wrote the horrendously wasteful "stimulus" plan and co-authored a paper with Jared Bernstein saying that unemployment would stay below 8 percent if the "stimulus" passed, with this visual representation of their prediction:
Of course, unemployment is now well above the "without recovery plan" line, though sputtering Keynesians who apparently have never learned a single lesson from economic history still say "it would have been so much worse if we hadn't incinerated a trillion dollars of your children's money." (Well, they don't say it exactly like that...)
To be fair to Romer, her paper argues that tax hikes are extremely negative unless they are perceived as being put in place in order to reduce a big budget deficit. The problem with her argument in today's application is that she assumes credit markets will see tax hikes as actually cutting the deficit, which would indeed be a long-term positive. But with a government which shows absolutely no interest in cutting spending, which has made it clear that any new tax revenue will be used to increase spending (public union vote buying to be precise) even further rather than to cut the deficit, Romer's caveat becomes meaningless.
However, within her happy little world in which there is a shred of fiscal responsibility in our federal government, it is then consistent with her framework to argue for spending a trillion dollars. After all, that money would massively increase the deficit and then allow her to argue for those painless tax hikes.
Speaking of hikes, I'm pleased to see Christina Romer take one. The questions now become which species of ground-dwelling mammal will replace her and which will be the next to flee the Obama ship of state as it takes on water at a record pace.
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More Blog Posts by Ross Kaminsky
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/08/06/jumping-ship
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Jeff| 8.6.10 @ 4:47PM
what about Oz leaving ... she's the second senior economic advisor to jump ...
Stan Redmond| 8.6.10 @ 6:08PM
Oh to be a fly on the wall. She probably feel dirty from her "we've created or saved 3 million jobs."
I wonder if this is like Lincoln firing his generals? Romer will be replaced with another sock puppet to praise Obama's economic policies but I doubt it will be anyone that knows a thing about economic realities rather then Keynesian fantasies.
Eric Cartman| 8.6.10 @ 6:17PM
The problem with the graph is that it's make-believe. I can make a graph of ifs and buts, too! The Obama Administration loves these types of graphs, though. Jobs saved; if we didn't do this, that would happen; if we do this, this will happen. Its all bullshit. Here's a graph that has more meaning that the one above:
http://swimming-rose.blogspot......nning.html
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 8.6.10 @ 8:13PM
Thanks Eric!! I just kind of wasted the last 15 minutes of my life wandering around that site. But in response to that graph, obviously I come down on the side of Wax On (because it was in Red), but I don't believe the poll is accurately reflecting what's going on in America right now. I'll have to check with Rasmussen, to see what they have to say about this issue, I don't think Wax Off is getting anywhere near 50% (maybe 40%, but not 50%). We'll see in November won't we?
Tim*| 8.6.10 @ 7:03PM
Hey Economic Buffoon Obama , It's The Economy Stupid .
The Unemployment stay stagnate at a U-3 of 9.5 Percent and a u-6 of 16.5 Percent .The total number of officially unemployed remained at about 14.6 million last month, with nearly half of them jobless for more than six months.
Eric Cox| 8.6.10 @ 10:11PM
PLEASE stop giving Obama the benefit of the doubt. He knows exactly what he's doing - he want to Harvard! Liberals have a psychology that drives them to rip down and chain up anything successful; to destroy the plentiful. Obama's economic policies are simply a macro-view of that psychology.
Oldefarte| 8.7.10 @ 11:00AM
Liberals falsifying Keynesian economic theory extrapolate its multiplyer effect to encompass the PUBLIC sector, when in fact it is only applicable to the PRIVATE sector. Money provided to the PUBLIC/government sector is simply spent by its recipients and creates a temporary, dead-end wall [and is not 'multiplyed]; whereas money given to the PRIVATE/non-government sector explodes into additional money spent upon bought equipment, plant/equipment, personnel, etc. The Democrats' [non] stimulus was given directly/only to state and local governments in order to allow them to avoid laying off their workers/employees that should have been eliminated due to decreased demand for their government services from the downturning economy. It therefore was another form of GOVERNMENT WELFARE. If, instead, the stimulus would have directed at the PRIVATE sector, the economic benefits of sales/employment increases would now have been evident from same. You have to understand that Obama and his administration are basically COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS [or academians if you will] who have never run/managed/owned profitable businesses; and that is the reason why our economy is in the tak and sinking daily!!!!
reads1| 8.7.10 @ 12:46PM
If the Citizens of this Country, including Union Members, do not stand up and protest these exorbitant demands their leaders put forth, and realize that when the Country goes Bankrupt, so does their outrageous Pension and Health plans, we will all go down together.
Rowdy Boots| 8.8.10 @ 1:43PM
If I hear one more time "saved or created" I will throw up.
This term is an insult to anyone with a brain. The insulting way this administration has treated the American People is disgusting and low-life.
GET RID OF THIS CREEP AND HIS CREEPY BUDDIES!
NOVEMBER, THY NAME IS FREEDOM!
Rowdy Boots
Ralph| 8.9.10 @ 10:53AM
So what is the job status of Romer? What category does she now fit? Unemployed, created, or saved? How about changing employment? That is what makes the created or saved language non sensical. Jobs are not static things. Overall, the stimulus failed. That is the only thing that matters.
The saved or created myth concerns government workers , union jobs, and stimulus directed at specific industries. There were no private jobs saved or created. Romer knows that.