ECONOMY: Who is right about what to do?

Cover of Franklin D. Roosevelt

I am not an economist but since the economy is the major issue confronting this country, Americans need to know something about current economics just to know if the president or the Congress is doing the right things to improve our economy. This is a hard task since even professional economists cannot agree on what the right path should be.

If you follow any economic news, you had to notice that European countries (Germany, UK, etc.) are cutting spending, cutting the deficit in their countries; they are not pouring stimulus money into their economies…we are the only nation doing the opposite.

If you follow discussions on economic history, you will also be aware that FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) who led the nation during the Great Depression, did not get us out of the depression, in fact, because of his actions, he prolonged the Great Depression; FDR basically spent money like a mad man and ran up a huge deficit and did not improve unemployment six (6) years after his predecessor, Herbert Hoover, left office.

Ben Bernanke, our current Fed Chairman, is a Great Depression scholar. He knows what worked and what did not for FDR. Currently he is flooding our country with dollars; he is printing extra money. One thing economists do agree on is that during the Great Depression, money was tight; businesses could not borrow etc. so he may be doing something right even though many are criticizing him because he is diluting the dollar.

BUT a low dollar makes our exports more affordable and imports more expensive. Are we manipulating our currency, something China does and we have warned them not to?

Britain has riots because they are cutting where obviously, the Brits don’t want them to cut BUT when you read about the cuts, they are cutting wasteful spending, something they should have done long ago. People are rioting because they can no longer depend on the government to pay for everything they need; their type of socialism is not sustainable anymore and the government has the balls to make painful but needed changes.

Yes, our number one job is to get the jobless rate down; put Americans back to work. This will only happen if and when, private business starts to hire and they will start to hire when they start selling their product(s) and need to make more.

One thing Obama is doing right is trying to increase our exports. I think our recovery is tied to American exports. I export and I am hiring more labor because I am exporting more and I have been at this 30 years.

We first have to have products or services that are in demand overseas and second, we have to have free trade treaties that are FAIR to both sides without any socialist bullshit attached like fair wages for your workers. Don’t compare what workers make in China with what union workers make here; China is kicking our ass and their workers are happy…comprende?

You see why it is difficult to get a handle on what to do and what not to do?

Related articles

• Reason.tv: Where are the Jobs? The Parallels between Today and the Great Depression (reason.com)
• Did the New Deal End the Depression? (lewrockwell.com)