Posted by
Andrews on Wednesday, August 05, 2009 9:42:09 PM
This is going to be a short post as well, but it appears that the congress has decided to waste still more on cash for clunkers, as I mentioned recently in "
Government Efficiency II" and "
Some Confirmation". The WSJ article I cited covers this whole topic quite well, pointing out the obvious fact that, if subsidies are such a great idea, why not have them for everything? Just pay people to spend money and we all get rich? Not to mention my own argument that we likely just shifted sales from future months, maybe convincing a handful of marginal cases to make a purchase they would not otherwise have made. The whole thing is Keynesian nonsense and reeks of the worst FDR "brain trust" ideas and "pump priming" absurdities. But I suppose it fits our general fascination with all things "retro". Big government is hip again, enough time has passed since the Carter debacle. Maybe we have to go through this every 30 years just to remind us how stupid this is.
So if we survive, maybe we get a pass until 2040. If so, that is the best new I have heard in some time.
POSTSCRIPT
By the way, I entitled it "Bad Money" as we are not paying for this with borrowed funds, or even funds stolen from the tax payers, but from printed funds, backed by stealthy inflationary theft. I can't imagine a worse combination, wasted money funded through inflation, eroding savings, distorting markets and generally destroying the marketplace, all to shift some sales to the third quarter from the fourth.
POSTSCRIPT II
I stand corrected. Local news tells me that the vote may be postponed until the weekend. That is interesting in light of the increasing cracks in the Democrat facade. I doubt they fear a defeat, but I do imagine the numbers may be lower than they would like.