Is that how much the EU has in toxic assets?
The mind boggles. Of course, in Euros it’s only twenty trillion or so (at least for the moment), so maybe it’s not so bad…
Category Archives: Business
What To Do About The Stimulus
Jim Manzi has some thoughts. As he says, they’re not going to happen, but at least they provide an alternate framework for debate.
Anti-Recession Measures
Too much, too late. And why did everyone ignore the CBO, which said that the recession will be over later this year if we did nothing?
Dangerous For Your Health?
Yet another time bomb in the “stimulus” package, that won’t be debated:
One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”
The last entity that I want monitoring my health care is the federal government.
This bill is apparently chock-a-block with stuff like this, each and every one of which should be discussed, debated and if passed, passed on its own merits with its own bill, and has nothing to do with stimulus. This is quite possibly the worst piece of legislation in the nation’s history, and it’s being rushed through with almost no debate, discussion, or even knowledge of its contents by those voting for it. The Founders would weep.
If they vote for the conference product, I hope that Collins, Snowe and Specter all lose their next races, even if they’re replaced by Dems. At least they’ll be honest Dems.
[Early evening update]
(Democrat) Mickey Kaus explains how this bill will roll back, if not completely undo, welfare reform.
Avoiding Hoover
Jim Manzi has a good post on the real implications of this disaster wending its way all too quickly down Pennsylvania Avenue.
What I find most appalling about it are the perverse incentives and moral hazards that it sets up. Buy more house than you can afford? No problem, the taxpayers will prop you up and keep you in it. Spending more than revenue in your state capital? Don’t sweat it, we’ll just steal money from other states so you can keep it up.
It is punishing the prudent and rewarding the irresponsible. And when you set up a system like that, you’ll get a lot less of the former and a lot more of the latter behavior. At some point, Atlas will shrug. I don’t know how far off we are from it, though.
[Update a few minutes later]
Welcome to the Great American Handout.
“Thugs Ransacking My House”
Well, Arnold Kling certainly isn’t mincing any words:
“I think about the stimulus as an economist but I feel it as a father. Barack Obama is destroying my daughters future. It is like sitting there watching my house ransacked by a gang of thugs. That’s how I feel, now back to how I think.”
As noted if you read the whole thing, this isn’t a “stimulus” plan. It’s a grow-government-and-make-us-all-increasingly-dependent-on-it plan. The welfare provision alone is proof of that.
More Mendacity From The President
He claims that there is a consensus among economists that we must pass this bill quickly. But no such thing exists.
Deprogramming Students
Thomas Sowell has some useful thoughts.
What Do You Think?
OK, so we have a bill that has passed both the House and the Senate, both of which are controlled by the Democrats. In both houses, they were rushed through with little debate, and in the House, it was almost entirely crafted by the Democratic leadership, without even significant input from the Blue Dogs, let alone the Republicans. It is hundreds of pages, and totals close to a trillion dollars (a mind-numbing number that may necessitate updating the old Dirksen quote) in new spending, paid for with money that the nation doesn’t have. It has many items in it that are not obviously aimed at stimulating the economy, but rather in advancing various social and political goals, but it’s hard to be sure because few have had the opportunity to even read, let alone comprehend the whole thing.
Now which is the more likely scenario?
A. It is the output of a sober, long-debated process that was totally focused on improving the American economy, carefully considering the potential unintended consequences of every item in the bill, with associated committee hearings and qualified witnesses, or
B. It is an overnight cut’n’paste concatenation of every item on pent-up Democrats’ wish lists going back to 1994, when they lost control of the Congress, because everyone wants to get a ride on the late-Christmas tree that is sure to go through via fearmongering by a popular new president.
Come on, folks. William of Ockham had just the tool for this conundrum.
I know where my money is.
This Is Stimulus?
One of the (no doubt many) economic time bombs in the bill could force employers to extend COBRA for decades. What’s the problem?
The HR departments for large employers are looking at this provision with great alarm, as indicated in this policy brief. PricewaterhouseCoopers produced an analysis which pegs the ten-year cost of this provision at $39 billion to $65 billion just for those current COBRA-eligible workers age 55 to 64. The estimated costs would be even higher if the analysis assumed, as is reasonable, that many more workers would elect early retirement if they were assured of access to group-rated insurance.
What would employers do if faced with the costs of implementing this provision? It’s fairly predictable. They would hire fewer workers, and pay their current employees less. Not exactly “stimulus.”
Indeed, this is exactly the kind of complex provision which should be considered by Congress only after careful study and a hearing or two to avoid unintended consequences. Certainly it has no business on a bill purportedly aimed at promoting short-term job growth. Unfortunately, logic and reason may not be enough to prevail in the current mad-dash rush to “pass something.”
I suspect that most of the bill is like that. This is madness. The Founders would be appalled at what has happened to the Republic.