Phil Gramm was right
By David Adams in Kentucky Posted in Economy — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Today's political roadkill is Sen. Phil Gramm, an economic adviser to Sen. John McCain.
McCain's opponent Sen. Barack Obama is having a field day stomping on Gramm for things he didn't say and extrapolating his misquotings beyond all reason, a commonly used political tactic.
Here is Obama:
Gramm actually said:
"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."
This is undeniably true. If we actually fall into a recession, the crybabies will go into full freakout. Just look at what they are doing now, while we still have economic growth. (That means the economy is better now that it have ever been in our history, a much-ignored fact.)
Gramm is also being excoriated for saying this:
"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said."
Notice that Obama has to make up the "figment of your imagination" part and that his conclusion is "it isn't whining to ask government to step in and give families some relief."
Obama's premise that the current economy is wiping out innocent families betrays the folly of his contention that many of us aren't whiners and his definition of "some relief" would be tough for our government to finance under current economic circumstances, much less if things were to really get tough.
cross posted on Bluegrass Policy Blog
Sorry..this is one of the stupidest remarks of the campaign so far. Possibly tops Barry and Michelle telling us that we're "bitter" and "mean".
While I think there was some merit in much of what Phil Gramm said, we don't need Part 2 of the "malaise speech". He might as well have been channeling Jimmy Carter.
If McCain can turn energy--and finding more oil/natural gas here in our own country--into a defining issue, the angle will have to be that he cares more about people struggling with the high cost of $4 gas, not to mention the decline in the value of their home, food inflation, etc. The Obamas--who struggle with things like finding ballet teachers and the price of arugula--just don't get the struggles of average working people. (As in, the folks who voted against him by double-digits from PA to OH to KY). Hearing an investment banker call them whiners??? No...I don't think so.
So Phil Gramm is not only off message, he's saying the opposite of where this campaign needs to be charging. I think the campaign needs to find others uses for his talents.
The electorate are a bunch of whiners. They want the government re. their neighbors to pay for their prescriptions and fuel. They want someone else to educate their kids regardless of the consequences. The drive by media tells the American people the economy sucks and Bush is to blame, so like good little patsies, they buy it.
The entire mortgage meltdown was just a bunch of people trying to make a quick buck and taking risks they should not have taken. And now, the government re. their neighbors, has to foot the bill.
anyone who thinks more government and more taxes will help the economy would be lucky to be called only a "whiner" in my book.
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Molon Labe!
Generally, I think the substance behind Gramm's comments is absolutely correct and it was high time someone pointed it out. I've said the same thing myself many times (granted, I'm not a public figure). The daily media jeremiads of our non-recession recession are beyond the point of absurdity by now.
I admit that it was a mistake, from a political standpoint, to use the words he did. It makes him seem dismissive and condescending and gives ammunition for Obamesiah to frame Republicans as uncaring brutes whereas HE, HE will deliver us into paradise.
Fair enough, but someone had to jolt the public, so transfixed by apocalyptic media prognostications, with a little hard reality and a little tough love.
Kudos, Senator Gramm.
| Investor Index Highs and Lows | ||
| High | Low | |
| 2008 | 113.2 | 77.6 |
| 2007 | 150.0 | 107.6 |
| 2006 | 148.2 | 120.9 |
| 2005 | 145.0 | 111.8 |
| 2004 | 150.9 | 123.6 |
| 2003 | 150.3 | 91.1 |
| 2002 | 143.9 | 105.2 |
Investor confidence has fallen to a record low for the third straight day. At 77.6, the Index is down a point from yesterday, down five points over the past week and down thirty-five points from the beginning of this year. Prior to this calendar year, the Investor Index had never fallen below 91.1 and it had not been below 100 since early in 2003...
Among investors, 21% say their finances are improving, while 55% say they are worsening. At the beginning of this year, 36% of investors said their personal finances were getting better, while 37% said they were getting worse. Among high-risk investors, 29% say their finances are getting better, while 51% say their finances are getting worse. Low-risk investors are more pessimistic on the state of their personal finances. Only 16% claim their finances are getting better; 51% say their finances are worsening.
"Austere, intolerant, well-armed, and blood-thirsty, in their own regions the Wahhabis are a distinct factor which must be taken into account" - Winston Churchill, 1921
Suck it up people and stop whining!!!!
Freedom of Religion NOT Freedom from Religion
You missed the point. Before presenting such data, let me ask you a question: Have you been a stock broker or stock buyer?
What's the first question in buying or selling stock?
You will ask your broker which stock will perform best or whether your current stocks will perform well?
Your broker (yourself if you don't have one) will answer things about the future... all speculation.
That means your broker will say something like this:
Oh, don't buy that stuff because people say it won't do good.
Oh, buy this because some information say the price will go up.
Oh, sell your stock because according to some people your stock price will go down.
Oh, sell your
Note both market fundamentalists (who use models) and technicians (who use charts/chartists) do their projections generally based on what they hear from people. SO even the most well-studied projections are SPECULATIVE.
That's how the market works. No one should be able to predict it because if anyone does, that person will become the wealthiest man on earth. Get any Finance book and you will know that's the law of Financial Market:
THE RANDOM WALK THEORY:
PRICE FOLLOWS A RANDOM WALK. PRICE CHANGES ARE INDEPENDENT OF ONE ANOTHER... ONE CANNOT BEAT THE MARKET.
KEYNES' PSYCHOLOGICAL MARKET EFFECTS THEORY:
Investors are subject to psychological feelings of optimism or pessimisms and to pressures "to move with the crowd".
These basic principles teach us the following:
1. Those who say that they observe the market properly are liars... There is no market trading rule.
2. Price of the market is the outcome of investor mood, and not a "input factor".
Grahm is just stating a no-brainer fact: Markets rise and go down because of speculations.
If the Government itself is the one saying bad things (whether true or not), the market will plummet. That's why History tells us that past President, Congress, and Fed agencies were very careful to say something that will influence speculation: better for them to stay away from the market.
Those candidates and partisan entities using the market to gain votes in this coming election.... are doing a great disservice to the people.
Discover Small Business Watch
Monday, June 30, 2008
June Key Findings:
"Austere, intolerant, well-armed, and blood-thirsty, in their own regions the Wahhabis are a distinct factor which must be taken into account" - Winston Churchill, 1921
It's a saying among our site moderators that the use of Reply To This is a basic IQ test we administer to our users.
Unfortunately, so far, you're failing.
If anyone has to blame somebody, it is the democrat-run congress itself. It is supposed to be the protector of the people by giving solutions immediately before the problem gets deeper.
Since 2006, no such measures have been fully developed.
The blame includes Obama and McCain.
Obama, on the other hand, is washing his hands and making false claims that he is the solution to the problem... which is entirely wrong and morally false.
he was an idiot to say it out loud.
Look, you have to be a complete dolt to NOT know that a statement like that is going to be a political goldmine for Obama. It just makes Republicans (again) look like uncaring ogres.
Sometimes it's smart to just keep your trap shut. Gramm should have done just that.
The Unofficial RedState FAQ
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. ” - Martin Luther
Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business … frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise.Ronald Reagan
on the viewpoint of Democrats and MSM, everyone else is a fair game.
Feel sorry for Gramm in saying the "inconvenient truth" out loud.
It goes back to when he was a Democratic Senator and gave up on his party. He could have done what most party switchers do: just switch and make the people who voted you in just deal with it. But no; he *quit* and ran to replace himself as a Republican.
And of course it was his big mouth that help cost him his run for the Presidency to begin with.
Just proves it's a sham when people say they want, well, "straight talk."
that led us to bad policy in the 1970's. Nobody wants to be told it's up to them to try harder for themselves.
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