Looks like the stimulus package is not doing to well in the Senate. I don’t get why tax cuts are even being considered, the last eight years have been one big tax cut and it didn’t work out too well.
Daschle out as HHS, why not Howard Dean? Dean has done more for progressives than any other single person out there and has been right about almost everything over last eight years. He deserves a cabinet position. Plus, he might be able to get something done to make health care better for everyone.
Dean…outside the box idea. Sounds brilliant – unless he’s got a child porn habit we don’t know about, I think it would be a home run.
Republicans are obstructing now because they’re nervous that more of the map will go blue in 2010 if things turn around.
Tax cuts are the fastest way to stimulate the economy, or is there a faster way?
If you don’t have income tax cuts don’t do you much good and they certainly don’t enable you to spend more money.
The people who really benefit from tax cuts are probably more likely to save the extra money or use it to pay off debts than to pump the money back into the economy.
infrastructure projects should create jobs and put money in the hands of people who actually might spend the money they receive.
I think the worry with Howard Dean is that he is too partisan, but it looks like the ere of bi-partisanship is about to come to an end.
JR: So is your answer that infrastructure projects are more stimulative than tax cuts? I don’t think Christina Romer or Larry Summers agree with you.
We have had eight years of tax cuts and about all we have to show for it is a big deficit.
It seems like people who are employed are doing a little better just because things like gas prices are coming down. We need more people employed and construction projects do get people employed.
But did the deficit decelerate? Did the carry cost of the deficit decelerate?
I agree that employment is the key. But paying people more than the value they add can turn other industries, such as construction, into the auto industry. It’s not a good strategy.
Without tax cuts, the economy could be much worse. It’s one thing for politicians to make non-falsifiable statements. But I expect more from my fellow Sox fans. (Otherwise, we can sound like Yankee fans).
The auto industry is private, and at least some people seem to think they over pay. So it seems that government projects are no more likely to over pay than private industry.
Tax cuts may cause inflation in that they give money to the wealthiest indaviduals so they can spend more money on luxery items which may squeeze the lower income people out of the market. Part of the reason that we don’t have cheap fuel efficient cars available in the US is that everyone could afford SUV’s because they were not paying enough taxes to run the country.
When the country has a deficit tax cuts are another form of loan financing which seems to produce inflation and skew the economy
Paying a middle school dropout $30 per hour to do what somebody in Arkansas will do for $20 is overpaying, and that happens in UAW-influence Detroit.
Who makes luxury items? I mean, who builds the toilet and installs the toilet that goes on the yacht or the corporate jet?
It is nice to be so unconstrained in thought, I guess. I am glad to come here to escape.
The problem with the gold plated toilets is that they drive the prices of all toilets up. Through easy debt people have been able to afford the special gold toilets. BTW I am susing gold toilets as a metaphore for caddilac escalades.
By allowing upper middle class and wealthy people to avoid paying their fare share of taxes the US treasury has subsidized gold toilets and made regular toilets more expensive for the rest of us.
The other problem for the auto industry I think is all the health care expenses they have for their retirees. National health care would go a long way towards fixxing the problems for the auto industry.
Actually JR, increased demand in luxury goods will drive the cost of discount goods lower. It’s part of the economy of scale. More purchased first-class airline tickets will reduce the cost of coach. More demand for Lexus will reduce the cost of Corollas.
With airlines if you add high dollar seats you give up economy class seats. British airways expanded their “business class” seats and they suddenly stopped the really cheap fares that they used to offer in economy class. The reason being that they didn’t have as many economy seats to get rid of so they didn’t need to fill them at any cost. This upped the overall cost of travel.
I think you are assuming that businesses are going to pass the savings on to customers but in the end it is just used to drive-up profits. Business is not altruistic.
I never said business is altruistic. I am just saying that impersonal capitalism is more altruistic than social engineering, which is just as selfish as capitalism but portends to be more generous. All while eroding personal liberty.
What of DVD players? Flat panel televisions? Computers? Cell phones? Aspirin? Brokerage accounts? Flu mist? Digial music? Cars? And, yes, airplane travel?
All of these things were quite expensive at first–product innovations usually are, to recoup R&D expenses, so “toys for the rich”–but process improvements usually continue allow providers to produce more for less, thereby lowering costs where a crazy welfare mom like Octamom can watch John & Kate Plus 8 on her flat-panel TV with cable, and try to outdo them.
Cell phones are a great example of a luxery item that has become mainstream, and don’t get me wrong they are great, but it cell servive probably is still far more expensive than a land line.
I ment to say “cell service” I am working nights and being tired has destryed what little typing ability I have.
JR: A single AT&T monopolized land line with very limited long distance usage cost about $40 a few decades ago. Now you can carry your phone in your back pocket and make a long distance call every day for less in inflation adjusted dollars, not to mention that discretionary income is 50% more abundant than back in the seventies.