Economic Policy Confusion

Isn't it obvious that the politicians have no idea why the economy is staggering? After the arrogance of January, 2009, when the exuberant victors of the 2008 election proceeded to toss away $ 800 billion in a foolish waste of money known as "the stimulus."



The Obama folks assumed that throwing taxpayer money in the direction of Obama political allies (mostly state employee union members) would magically get the economy back on track. Why the Obama folks thought that, no one knows?



Then the Obama team began the process of erecting roadblocks (think Dodd Frank, Obamacare, the Credit Card Reform act, stifling regulations from the EPA and the NLRB) that would virtually guarantee that the economy had no real chance of recovery.



Now, Obama promises to come up with a new package to deal with the "jobs problem." This would be comical were it not so tragic. Putting up more roadblocks does not remove the original roadblocks.



This economy will not get out of its own way until the roadblocks are dismantled and real market forces are permitted to function again -- especially in the labor market.



Bernanke's comments on Friday were ridiculous. It is time that Bernanke return to academia. Bernanke's Fed is arguably the worst in the history of the Federal Reserve and its results on the economy are there for all to see.



The usual response by defenders of Obama and Bernanke is to say that things would have been much worse had they not done what they did. Really? When, other than the last time policies like these were tried in the 1930s, were things ever this bad.



The Reagan recovery in the 1980s shows how to get it done. Get the government off the back of the citizenry. That is the solution. The government is not the answer. The government is the problem and until it changes course (or gets changed), America will continue its slide into irrelevance.