- There is, of course, considerable controversy as to whether the current dismal economic growth rate can even be called a recovery or whether it is actually a harbinger of a double dip recession. Certainly the trending is toward the latter with last quarter 2011 results somewhat encouraging at 4% and change, 1st quarter 2012 economic growth down to 2% and 2nd quarter 2012 growth down further to an anemic 1.5%.
- And BO's BS and bafflegab about how the reason the recovery is so anorexic is because the economy was so far down when he took power doesn't hold any water at all. Both history and logic suggest that when the bottom is particularly far down, then growth is much more dramatic, percentage - wise. when a real recovery actually begins.
- If you wonder why the recovery after over 40 months of Obama is so anemic, you will find several important clues in this excellent column by Thomas Sowell which compliments some of the information and analysis found in Klein's recent book "The Amateur" on the Obama White House.
- The underlying theme of both these accounts is that Obama and his Chicago mugs, thugs and slugs have failed due to a stunning and toxic combination of ignorance and arrogance. And this ignorance and arrogance results in wrong headed decisions that do not achieve desired objectives and also makes the investors and the decision makers and job creators in the competitive market sector reluctant to take the risks and make the efforts that they would in a more positive and predictable tax and regulatory environment
- The Chicago gang's ignorance is boundless when it comes to lacking necessary experience, knowledge and skills in the areas such as business and finance and health care and national defence and security that they are so enthusiastically and incompetently regulating, controlling and telling what to do and even how to do it.
- Their arrogance - which tends to be a common trait among the big government liberal set going back at least as far as FDR and, arguably, Wilson - persuades them that no matter how little actual experience and knowledge they have in business and finance and other areas, somehow government (meaning them) knows best and not only can but should seek to intervene in and regulate all aspects of these complex areas and that their judgement is invariably superior to that of the marketplace.
- What both puzzles and worries me - as it obviously does Sowell - is that for an increasing percentage of Americans, especially on the left-lib side of the poilitical divide - ignorance is a badge of honour and perhaps now is even becoming a prerequisite for the presidency.
For some, ‘ignorance’ is liberating
When you don’t even know enough to realize how little you know
By Thomas Sowell
Saturday, July 28, 2012 07:08 PM EDT
Even squirrels know enough to store nuts, so that they will have something to eat when food gets scarce. But the welfare state has spawned a whole class of people who spend everything they get when times are good, and look to others to provide for their food and other basic needs when times turn bad.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution prescribes “equal protection of the laws�� to all Americans. But what does that mean, if the President of the United States can arbitrarily grant waivers, so that A, B and C have to obey the laws but X, Y and Z do not — as with both ObamaCare and the immigration laws?
Two reports came out in the same week. One was from the Pentagon, saying that, in just a few years, Iran will be able to produce not only a nuclear bomb but a missile capable of carrying it to the United States. The other report said that the American Olympic team has uniforms made in China. This latter report received far more attention, both in Congress and in the media.
People who lament gridlock in Washington, and express the pious hope that Democrats and Republicans would put aside their partisan conflicts, and co-operate to help the economy recover, implicitly assume that what the economy needs is more meddling by politicians, which is what brought on economic disaster in the first place. (Skeptics can read “The Housing Boom and Bust.�� )
Racism is not dead, but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as “racists.��
One of the arguments for Medicare is that the elderly don’t want to be a burden to their children. Apparently it is all right to be a burden to other people’s children, who are paying taxes.
One of the most dangerous trends of our times is making the truth socially unacceptable, or even illegal, with “hate speech�� laws.
It is supposed to be terrible, for example, to call an illegal alien an “illegal alien�� or to call an Islamic terrorist an “Islamic terrorist.�� When the media refer to “undocumented�� workers or to violence committed by “militants,�� who is kidding whom — and why?
After the charismatic — and disastrous — Woodrow Wilson presidency, the voters did not elect another president in the next decade who could be considered the least bit charismatic. Let us hope that history repeats itself.
For more than two centuries, the U.S. military never had a public celebration of anybody’s sex life — until the recent “gay pride�� event under the Obama administration. Here, as elsewhere, the gay political agenda is not equality but privilege.
Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.�� Then he proceeded to generate fear among businesses for years on end, with both his anti-business rhetoric and his anti-business policies.
Barack Obama is repeating the same approach and getting the same results — namely, an agonizingly slow economic recovery, as investors hang on to their money, instead of risking it in a hostile political environment.
If we wake up some morning and find some American cities in radioactive ruins, courtesy of a nuclear Iran, nobody is going to care whether the president who lets this happen is the first black president or the last WASP president. But, in the meantime, many people will keep on voting for symbolism, as if an election is a popularity contest.
There seems to be something “liberating�� about ignorance — especially when you don’t even know enough to realize how little you know. Thus an administration loaded with people who have never run any business is gung-ho to tell businesses what to do, as well as gung-ho to tell the medical profession what to do, lenders whom to lend to, and the military how to fight wars.
— Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University
- And BO's BS and bafflegab about how the reason the recovery is so anorexic is because the economy was so far down when he took power doesn't hold any water at all. Both history and logic suggest that when the bottom is particularly far down, then growth is much more dramatic, percentage - wise. when a real recovery actually begins.
- If you wonder why the recovery after over 40 months of Obama is so anemic, you will find several important clues in this excellent column by Thomas Sowell which compliments some of the information and analysis found in Klein's recent book "The Amateur" on the Obama White House.
- The underlying theme of both these accounts is that Obama and his Chicago mugs, thugs and slugs have failed due to a stunning and toxic combination of ignorance and arrogance. And this ignorance and arrogance results in wrong headed decisions that do not achieve desired objectives and also makes the investors and the decision makers and job creators in the competitive market sector reluctant to take the risks and make the efforts that they would in a more positive and predictable tax and regulatory environment
- The Chicago gang's ignorance is boundless when it comes to lacking necessary experience, knowledge and skills in the areas such as business and finance and health care and national defence and security that they are so enthusiastically and incompetently regulating, controlling and telling what to do and even how to do it.
- Their arrogance - which tends to be a common trait among the big government liberal set going back at least as far as FDR and, arguably, Wilson - persuades them that no matter how little actual experience and knowledge they have in business and finance and other areas, somehow government (meaning them) knows best and not only can but should seek to intervene in and regulate all aspects of these complex areas and that their judgement is invariably superior to that of the marketplace.
- What both puzzles and worries me - as it obviously does Sowell - is that for an increasing percentage of Americans, especially on the left-lib side of the poilitical divide - ignorance is a badge of honour and perhaps now is even becoming a prerequisite for the presidency.
For some, ‘ignorance’ is liberating
When you don’t even know enough to realize how little you know
By Thomas Sowell
Saturday, July 28, 2012 07:08 PM EDT
Even squirrels know enough to store nuts, so that they will have something to eat when food gets scarce. But the welfare state has spawned a whole class of people who spend everything they get when times are good, and look to others to provide for their food and other basic needs when times turn bad.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution prescribes “equal protection of the laws�� to all Americans. But what does that mean, if the President of the United States can arbitrarily grant waivers, so that A, B and C have to obey the laws but X, Y and Z do not — as with both ObamaCare and the immigration laws?
Two reports came out in the same week. One was from the Pentagon, saying that, in just a few years, Iran will be able to produce not only a nuclear bomb but a missile capable of carrying it to the United States. The other report said that the American Olympic team has uniforms made in China. This latter report received far more attention, both in Congress and in the media.
People who lament gridlock in Washington, and express the pious hope that Democrats and Republicans would put aside their partisan conflicts, and co-operate to help the economy recover, implicitly assume that what the economy needs is more meddling by politicians, which is what brought on economic disaster in the first place. (Skeptics can read “The Housing Boom and Bust.�� )
Racism is not dead, but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as “racists.��
One of the arguments for Medicare is that the elderly don’t want to be a burden to their children. Apparently it is all right to be a burden to other people’s children, who are paying taxes.
One of the most dangerous trends of our times is making the truth socially unacceptable, or even illegal, with “hate speech�� laws.
It is supposed to be terrible, for example, to call an illegal alien an “illegal alien�� or to call an Islamic terrorist an “Islamic terrorist.�� When the media refer to “undocumented�� workers or to violence committed by “militants,�� who is kidding whom — and why?
After the charismatic — and disastrous — Woodrow Wilson presidency, the voters did not elect another president in the next decade who could be considered the least bit charismatic. Let us hope that history repeats itself.
For more than two centuries, the U.S. military never had a public celebration of anybody’s sex life — until the recent “gay pride�� event under the Obama administration. Here, as elsewhere, the gay political agenda is not equality but privilege.
Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.�� Then he proceeded to generate fear among businesses for years on end, with both his anti-business rhetoric and his anti-business policies.
Barack Obama is repeating the same approach and getting the same results — namely, an agonizingly slow economic recovery, as investors hang on to their money, instead of risking it in a hostile political environment.
If we wake up some morning and find some American cities in radioactive ruins, courtesy of a nuclear Iran, nobody is going to care whether the president who lets this happen is the first black president or the last WASP president. But, in the meantime, many people will keep on voting for symbolism, as if an election is a popularity contest.
There seems to be something “liberating�� about ignorance — especially when you don’t even know enough to realize how little you know. Thus an administration loaded with people who have never run any business is gung-ho to tell businesses what to do, as well as gung-ho to tell the medical profession what to do, lenders whom to lend to, and the military how to fight wars.
— Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University
