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August 6, 2008

Notes from Ferdy - The Crazy Campaign Promises of Barack Obama

by Ferdinand T Cat

In 1975, three years into the governorship of independent Democrat Daniel Walker, Bruce was approached by a political science student and asked his opinion of Governor Walker's performance in office. Walker had made many grandiose promises during his campaign, none of which were actually implemented, and the student-- like many other liberals-- felt that Walker had been corrupted by his tenure in office. Bruce's opinion was decidedly different: he felt that Walker's proposals were impossibly naive, and was relieved to learn that Walker had only been making those promises as a ploy to get elected. This was not the correct answer, and Bruce was never again asked to participate in a political science research project.

I am reminded of this story because Barack Obama has just made one of those impossibly naive proposals: a "complete transformation of our economy" during his first term in office. To put this idea in perspective, consider that Paris Hilton has a more realistic energy plan.

I suppose Obama sees himself as a modern-day FDR, but FDR was working with an economy in which a fourth of the population was unemployed. Finding public-sector jobs for the unemployed is much easier than converting an economy from fossil fuels to a renewable energy source produced by a technology yet to be discovered. In addition, FDR had the ability to monetize the debt, a practice that was severely curtailed by the Bank Deregulation Act of 1980 because monetization was pushing the inflation rate out of control. (You may have noticed that since 1980 we've had bigger deficits but less inflation.)

So, Obama has put this pronouncement out there, and it's simply crazy. As was the case with Daniel Walker 30 years ago, voters have to ask: does he not understand this stuff, or is he just saying anything to get elected? This was never a question we had to ask about Hillary Clinton.

I'm starting to miss her. It's scary.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


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Now that I think about it, Paris Hilton *would* probably make a better president than Obama. At the very least, it would make for more interesting newspaper articles, and since she's a woman, it would probably keep the Hillary crowd happy.


Posted by: Michael at August 7, 2008 12:38 AM

Can you please further expand on why bigger deficits would lead to less inflation? Aren't the deficits what cause the government to create new bonds to sell to the Fed in the first place? If the trillions we have in debt aren't currently being monetized, where is the money coming from? I think I'm missing something. Thanks.


Posted by: j alden at August 29, 2008 10:18 AM

The cause and effect is in the other direction: less inflation leads to bigger deficits. When the government spends more than it takes in, it has two options: print more money (monetizing) or auctioning treasury bills (borrowing). When they print the money, it does not appear on the books as deficit spending, so the deficit appears smaller. The downside is that printing money in that way makes each existing dollar worth a little less, hence the inflation. When we stopped monetizing, the inflation rate dropped like a stone, but the deficits ballooned from $20 billion a year to around $200 billion a year.


Posted by: Ferdy Author Profile Page at August 29, 2008 7:58 PM

Cats are *so* not conservative. They're not liberal, either. They're definitely not liberal...cats would not be supportive of welfare.

My cat, she's an anarchist. Probably. No, she's smart enough to open doors on her own, so she's probably smart enough to not be an anarchist...she's really into non-violent protests. Like, climbing on the kitchen counters when she knows I think that's gross.

...Really thinking about it, though, I bet my cat would like Palin. She likes women. Just in general. My cat would not like Biden, but might be charmed by Obama's soothing voice. McCain probably smells funny. He also doesn't look like he likes cats much.


Posted by: Drunky McDrunkerson at October 16, 2008 8:34 PM

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