Ilya Somin says that George Bush should, finally, stop giving a bad name to free markets:
Bush’s belated support for free markets follows in Hoover’s footsteps. After leaving office in 1933, Hoover wrote books and articles defending free markets and criticizing the Democrats’ New Deal. Some of his criticisms of FDR were well-taken. Many New Deal policies actually worsened and prolonged the Great Depression by organizing cartels and increasing unemployment. But by coming out as a free market advocate, the post-presidential Hoover actually bolstered the cause of interventionism because he helped cement the incorrect impression that he had pursued free market policies while in office, thereby causing the Depression. Bush’s post-presidential conversion creates a similar risk: it could solidify the already widespread impression that he, like the Hoover of myth, pursued laissez-faire policies which then caused an economic crisis.
What should Bush now do if he genuinely wants to help the free market cause? The best thing would be to take up economist David Henderson’s half-joking suggestion that he “express his regret at nationalizing airport safety, carrying out illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens, raiding medical marijuana clinics, bailing out General Motors, AIG and other companies, and socializing prescription drugs for the elderly [the biggest new government program from the 1960s until the present financial crisis].” Bush could also point out that he advocated an ideology of “compassionate conservatism” that included vastly expanded government, and an “ownership society” that (in his own words) involved “us[ing] the mighty muscle of the federal government” to incentivize dubious mortgages of the kind that helped cause the financial collapse of 2008. The greatest contribution Bush can now make to free market policies is to dispel the impression that he pursued them while in office.
Unfortunately, as Somin points out, the likelihood that he will admit his perfidy to markets, or the disastrous nature of many of his domestic policies, is pretty low, so the best thing he can do for free markets now is to just shut up.
History never quite repeats itself, and who said it rhymes?
What people are forgetting is that the calamity of the Great Depression was set into motion by events at the start of Hoover’s single term in office, not at the end.
If anything, we have Calvin “W” Coolidge, the if not exactly silent but perhaps mildly tongue-tied 2-term president, followed by Barack H Obama, where the “H” stands for “Hoover.” The ever worsening economic conditions are happening at the start of “H’s” administration, and that “H” will serve more than one term is maybe somewhat presumptious at this point.
This make me think of what has happened to the office of the Presidency. Clearly there seems to be some entities who interest go well outside those considered proper by the citizen’s of the U.S. I mean look at Obama, when he is off his teleprompter he has to touch his finger tips to recite talking points. These guys we’ve been electing lately are out of their league on most subjects and need hand holders on most everything. It is like when a Ron Burgundy was pulled on Charles Barkley and they got him to say, <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDDxh3iyy9s””I’m a dumbass”. They just say whatever they’ve been spoon fed and pay little attention to context.
G. W. Bush was no Calvin Coolidge who was perhaps the last hands off president of the US (with the possible exception of Eisenhower).
If anyone needed further evidence that John Kerry is a doofus, remember that he accused the Bush Administration of promoting “anarchism.” Somehwere the ghost of Murray Rothbard gave that Murray Rothbard chortle and said, “If only, Magic Hat.”