Monday, August 02, 2010

Why Can't Obama Get Growth Going Again?

I think this article contains one of the main reasons why things will stay stagnant far longer then he might want them to.

Reagan got the country out of the mess because he cut taxes, cut regulation, set clear objectives, and let ordinary Americans make money. Obama is failing to get the country out of a recession because he’s telling Americans what money they can make, what kind of jobs should be created, what extra regulations will be imposed on them (once he and his dysfunctional party have made up their collective minds), and how much more they’re going to be taxed once that has been decided by all the committees that have jurisdiction. In short, he has done the one thing he should have avoided like the plague—he has created uncertainty.

That uncertainly creates hording behavior instead of risk taking behavior. This article also points out the demonization of Bond Holders in US Car Companies,"Wall Street Fat Cats," Health Insurers, Big Pharma, and now Offshore Drillers. I know many executives who will just keep their heads down and not invest in their business and hire more people because they don't want to be the next industry in the White House cross-hairs. This part also describes the White House in a nutshell:

The Obama administration consists of politicians who believe that a crisis is too good to waste, academics whose main contact with business has been soliciting money for endowments, bureaucrats impervious to economic considerations, environmental visionaries, and—to the extent that there is anyone who has spent time in business—quick buck artists who went briefly into “finance” to translate their political connections into money. Obama has appointed a cabinet and a White House staff which contains not a single former business executive. It is an administration whose only contact with Main Street is shopping.

It seems like the White House doesn't have a single person that even ran a lemonade stand let alone an actual business executive. Of course they want to raise taxes in a recession because they read it in a book and Obama wants to be FDR in the worst way. I think the GOP winning in November will go further toward a recovery then anything the White House will do in its 4 years in office.

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