How will we know if President Barack Obama’s must-have “stimulus” program succeeds? Politicians grab credit for everything, so we should come up with a way to measure success.
Obama said: “I expect to be judged by results.”
Let’s oblige him.
But it won’t be easy. Obama promises to “save or create” 3.5 million jobs, but if the unemployment rate is unchanged in four years, do we credit Obama for saving 3.5 million jobs that would have been lost?
If new jobs are created, should stimulus get the credit? If the gain is in the government sector or in areas fed by taxpayer money, how do we know that the job creation didn’t crowd out the creation of more and more-productive jobs?
If the gain is in the private sector, Obama’s boosters will claim credit on the basis of the “multiplier effect.” It’s a favorite theory of politicians and their court economists that government spending has a bigger economic jolt than cutting marginal tax rates. But not everyone is so sure (Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw, for one).
The bottom line is that a lower unemployment rate will not prove that Obama’s “stimulus” worked.
Given time, the economy — unless totally crippled by government intervention — will regenerate itself. That’s because an economy is not a machine that needs jumpstarting. It is people who have objectives they want to achieve. They will not sit on their hands forever waiting for government to “fix” things. Instead, they work to overcome obstacles to get what they want. Some banks are struggling, but there are still people who want to lend money and people who want to borrow it. They will find each other without government help.
During the Great Depression, many Americans kept producing in spite of the burdens imposed by then US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal (Amity Shlaes calls these “the forgotten man”).
Likewise, today, economist Steven Horwitz writes: “[T]he American people are already doing something to create wealth and hasten the recovery, even if we are the ones forgotten in the battle over what Washington should do. Americans are going to work every day, providing for their families ... increasing their savings rates, making much needed capital available to the private sector ... imagining new and more efficient ways to use valuable resources.”
We should make sure that Obama and his congressional colleagues don’t take credit for what we do. It wouldn’t be the first time a “leader” ran in front of a crowd and claimed to have led the way.
What if the economy is still in bad shape a year or two from now? Will we get apologies from Obama and the stimulus advocates in Congress? Not a chance. Their excuse is already prepared: The stimulus was too small.
On the day Obama signed the bill, his aides put out the word that another may be needed. The blame will not be put on the folly of stimulus, only on the meagerness of the spending.
Heads: big government wins. Tails: free people lose. I don’t want to play that game.
It’s important to remember that government has no resources it hasn’t first commandeered from the private economy. Anything it does to stimulate economic activity necessarily preempts private activity. Where is the gain?
Worse, since monopoly bureaucracies are not as efficient as competitive businesses, government efforts won’t get as much bang for the buck as private efforts. They will likely destroy wealth.
Ah, say the Keynesians, people aren’t buying, and that’s why businesses aren’t investing and hiring. Only government can jumpstart the economy.
But people didn’t just wake up one day and decide not to consume and invest. They hold back because the economy is uncertain. Then they hold back more because they don’t know what activist government will do next. Will it prop up housing or other prices? Will it nationalize the banks?
The way to get private activity going again is to let markets adjust to reality and set prices accordingly. Only then will economic activity resume and unemployment recede.
If, through your perseverance, things begin looking up, credit belongs not to Obama and Congress. It belongs to you.
John Stossel is co-anchor of the ABC News current affairs TV program 20/20 in the US.
COPYRIGHT: JFS PRODUCTIONS
The ultimate end of a situation in which communists are in charge of a capitalist economy is economic depression, with China’s economic woes the prime example. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has suspended monthly reports on youth unemployment, which had previously been at a record high, going beyond 20 percent and rising. It is often joked about in academic circles that when a national laboratory has made a great discovery, the institution will quickly call a news conference to announce it to the world, but when the research has been a total failure, the institution will keep it under wraps. The
During World War II, German U-boats almost succeeded in bringing Britain to its knees. US Navy submarines saw their greatest success against Japan with the sinking of more than 500 vessels in the Taiwan Strait. The complete blockade of Japan with US submarines, US Navy aircraft and an aerial mining program destabilized Japan’s economy and created severe shortages of food, materials for weapons production and fuel. On April 2, 1982, Argentine forces used submarines to invade the Falkland Islands, a British territory, sparking one of the largest conflicts since World War II. In response to Argentine aggression, the British government quickly
The EU is talking about admitting new members again, after years of blanking Balkan neighbors. The US is strengthening security ties with India’s authoritarian leader and assorted Asia-Pacific “strongmen.” Even the Saudi Arabian outcast, Prince Mohammad bin Salman, is back in Western favor. China is courting African and Arab countries, and the “Global South” with seductive talk of a brave new multipolar world, an expanded BRICS and an egalitarian G20. Ostracized Russia clings ever more desperately to Beijing, North Korea and like-minded rogue states. Say hello to the “new world order,” an ongoing, radical reconstruction of the existing global strategic, legal and
On Sept. 13, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) concluded its fifth annual joint training exercise with Singapore’s armed forces. In March, the PLA conducted joint training with Cambodia’s army. In February, BRICS members China, Russia and South Africa conducted joint naval drills. These exercises were all part of Beijing’s military diplomacy campaign. Military diplomacy deploys armed forces for foreign policy goals. Interaction between a nation’s military and foreign entities can achieve diplomatic goals and bolster security. China is increasingly leveraging its military for engagement and diplomatic advantages. China’s exercises facilitate overseas training for its troops and provide practice in deploying and
RSS