As predicted, “Voodoo Economics” has created a “Zombie Economy”.

This blog sneers ofttimes at “Republicans” and their stupid-f*** “supply-side” economics. (Here is one example of said mockery.) The gist is: tried and true data-based economic practices are the way to succeed, and Randian, Lafferesque Voodoo economic policies are the way to fail.

In Kansas, one of several states that have decided Ayn Rand was the false Goddess they shall worship, Voodoo economics have had the result most of those in the Reality-Based community have predicted:

In Kansas, the right wing has completely run the show in the state capitol since the 2012 elections, when Sam Brownback (who became governor two years earlier) led a purge of moderate Republicans who were acting as a brake on his agenda in the state Senate. Kansas is now a laboratory for what would happen if conservative Republicans gained full control of government. Empowered state Republicans slashed taxes for the rich, arguing that an economic boom would follow. It didn’t, as job growth in Kansas has underperformed the national average (as has Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, another state that moved hard right around the same time). But what did follow was a huge hole in the state’s budget (while liberal-dominated California is running a surplus and paying down debt).. (Emphasis via Cranky)

In state after state, the predicted results have occurred: Voodoo economics have created a sort of Zombie economy. What might seem just a mildly amusing turn of phrase is in fact a devastating blow to those of us not in the 1% (said 1% motherf***ers not being in the least incommoded by the Undead Economy). The economy is limping along, barely alive as far as most of us can tell, and that is not a sustainable path.

In Kansas, Wisconsin, Ohio, and indeed across the nation, we see the results of “Republican” policies: and rotten results they have proven to be. Using millions of people to test their voodoo theories was unethical at the outset, and has since sucked most of the life our of our economy.

Unlike the zombies one sees in movies, our Repub-afflicted economy can be healed and brought back to life. All that is needed is to lay off the voodoo, apply some healthy policies, and the rotting ambulatory corpse of our nation will be restored to health.

And the first step of that cure? Get out and vote. Vote against each and every “Republican” in every race, in every location. Banish the witch doctors and bring back the trained, educated professionals that had served us so well for centuries. Ditch the dream of Supply-Side, and awaken to reality.

That ‘dream’ turned out to be a nightmare the likes of which even Romero could never have envisioned, anyway.

Mr. Blunt and Crankly

Lying Sacks of S*** of The Week: Austerity Advocates

This week, the Crown O’ Polished Turds has thousands of worthy recipients: anyone and everyone who still pushes Austerity as a solution for an economy in recession. It hasn’t worked, doesn’t work, and won’t work in the future. Like Supply-Side economics, it is a theory with no supporting evidence and lots of information proving it wrong.

Recent examples include Greece and the rest of the EU, as well as Great Britain. The record pretty clearly proves that Austerity Does. Not. Work.

So to all the s*** heads pushing yet another reverse-Robin-Hood scam, we present even more s*** to put on top of your noggins. Wear it with pride, and to warn the rest of us of your approach.

Mr. B & C

PS: remember the huge 1991 Japanese recession, where they tried Austerity to fix the economy? They are STILL in a recession, 22 years later.

Austerity Doesn’t Always Work

Not quite a century ago, America had the Great Depression. The government at first tried to let the free market fix everything, used a tiny amount of stimulus, imposed austerity measures, and made things even worse.  A subsequent administration used huge amounts of stimulus, which helped the economy to recover and made it possible for the United States to avoid being taken over by the German Empire later on. Only a few fringe theorists think that we should have stuck with austerity in that case.

A decade or so ago, Japan had a pretty severe recession. The government decided to impose strict financial discipline and imposed drastic austerity measures. Japan’s economy has not yet gotten back to where it was before the recession, even after all these years, and independent economists have pretty much reached a consensus that austerity didn’t work in that case.

A while back, China had no particular economic issues but DID have huge honkin’ political issues. The government used unnecessary stimulus to distract the populace and is now realizing that they are about to have a recession. Neither austerity nor stimulus should have been used in that case.

A year or four ago, America and Europe got whacked with the Great Recession. America hedged its bets and went with a small dose of government stimulus, and the EU went with drastic austerity measures. Today, America’s economy is slowly (very slowly) recovering while Europe’s is circling the drain. Once again, independent economists are saying that the Yanks’ stimulus approach helped to stop the bleeding, and  the Europeans’ austerity measures have made a bad situation even worse.

So why, despite its lousy track record, do so many of us still think that austerity is a good tool to use in fixing our current financial mess?

Mr. B & C

Lying Sack of S*** of The Week: All Supply-Siders. Yes, including Romney and Ryan

Mr. Blunt and Cranky is bestowing this week’s Crown O’ Polished Turds upon any and everyone who is still pushing Voodoo Economics. They do so in spite of the recent Congressional Research Service analysis that proved that Supply-Side Economics Does. Not Work. Period. End of Story. Mourners, please omit flowers.

One would think that the GOP (and some few Dems) would be changing their tune, given the news. After all, if what they are proposing to do would damage the economy, run up deficits, and possibly foment civil unrest,  surely any responsible politician would change course, for the good of the nation. One would think that, and one would be wrong. Why?

The one effect that supply-side HAS had is the concentration of wealth among the top 1% of Americans. This is the primary funding source of the “Republican” party in this day and age, and that is what their priority is: the pipeline of cash (legal and otherwise) that lines their pockets and bloats their offshore bank accounts.

“Give us more time”, they say; “trust us”, as they siphon money from our pockets. Perhaps one might be inclined to give them said time, were it not for this little fact: the supply-siders who have had 3 ½ decades to prove their plan will work (and want more time) are the same people who are saying that President Obama should be thrown from office for not fixing the Great Recession in 3 ½ years.

Got that? They have had ten times as long to make their case, and want more time; time that they will not give to the other party. Feh.  They know that their theory is bogus, and rather than act in a patriotic manner, they are choosing to continue lining their pockets at our expense.

Throw them out, the lot of them, the lying, sneaking, pilfering, cheating scumbags.

Mr. B & C

Hellz NO, Romney’s Plan Won’t Work

It won’t work because it has been tried before and has never, repeat NEVER worked. Not once. (If you think you can argue the point, please submit a peer-reviewed economic paper showing where Supply-Side has actually worked for more than a year or so before it came crashing down. Pardon us for not holding our breath.) All the Romney/Ryan plan boils down is to Bush The Dumber’s plan, minus the compassion. And the Shrub’s Economic record was a cluster-f***ing train-wreck of thermonuclear proportions.

As we did yesterday, here are some actual numbers from the Feds and Wall Street to back Mr. Blunt and Cranky’s thesis statement (oh, and Congress changed control a number of times during the past 20 years, so don’t try blaming one party or the other over there):

Date:	Day One of Bubba 1/20/1993	Day One of Dubya    1/20/2001	Inauguration Day (End of Dubya’s Reign) 1/20/2009	Today (3 + Years of Obama) 9/5/2012
Unemployment Rate	7.3%	4.2%	7.8 % (rising)	8.3 % (fluctuating, down from 10.0 % in 2009)
Dow Jones	3,241.95	10,578.24	7,949.09	13,045.46
Nasdaq	697.44	2757.91	1440.86	3069.27
Stanford &   Poor’s	433.37	1432.90	805.22	1403.45
Inflation Rate	2.7%	1.6%	0.1 %	1.4%
National Debt	$4.1 Trillion	$5.7 trillion	$10.6 Trillion	$15.9 Trillion
Budget Deficit	$255 Billion (4.4% of   GDP)	-$128 Billion (3.0%   of GDP) (IOW, a Surplus)	$1.2 Trillion (8.3 %   of GDP)	$1.1 Trillion (7.6 % of GDP)
Job Expansion/ Contraction	63,000 added in 1/94   (Earliest available from BLS)	268,000 added in   1/2001	527,000 Jobs   lost  from 1/1/09 to 1/20/09	163,000 Jobs added in 6/12 (latest figures available from   BLS)

 

 

Please note that during Bubba’s time in office, things got better – Hell, even the national debt slowed its growth. That is because practicality trumped ideology. The Reagan/Bush The Smarter years were ideological, yes, but at least tempered with reality-based thinking and actions, so Clinton did not have as big of a mess to clean up. But clean it up he did, along with the adults in the Legislative Branch who managed to keep the ideologues in check part of the time.

Then along came Bush The Dumber. All ideology and whack-a-doodle theories, all the time, nary a pragmatist in the White House to utter a discouraging word. The result: each and every economic indicator went to Hell in a handbasket, and we are still trying to dig our way out of the resulting crisis that the Shrub and his crew of Supply-Siders caused.

Now we have Obama. Not this writer’s fave Prexy, but he’s done a darned good job of crisis management and even started addressing some of the underlying causes of the Bush Economic Collapse. His plan is to keep doing what has been proven to work, and do it for another four years. Kind of hard to argue with success, innit?

So, here’s the choice: Pick one or the other, there is no third option:

Number A: Romney, doing what has always failed before.

Letter 2: Obama, doing what always works.

(Hint: If you pick A, then you really ARE a stupid f***.)

Mr. B & C

Why Supply-Side Economics is a Sick Joke (The Laffer Curve is Laffable)

If someone were to tell you that they heard something once someplace, and scribbled a curved line on a napkin, would you risk your family’s safety and security on that quick little offhand doodle? Of course not. But that is exactly what the Voodoo Economics politicians have done to our entire nation.

Supply-Side Economic s (the notion that we should shovel extra money to rich folks in order to create prosperity for all) is a purely theoretical notion, and one with no data or historical basis to support it.  This specious doctrine has crashed our economy and resulted in an unprecedented looting of wealth from the American majority:  the biggest Reverse-Robin Hood scam ever perpetrated.  Somewhere in Hades, the Sheriff of Nottingham is cringing with envy.

The Beltway Banditos have taken this unproven notion and, over the past three decades, behaved as if it were a proven fact. It is not a fact, and never was. It was nothing more than a scribble on a mouth wipe, based upon a few cherry-picked quotes from historical Middle Eastern and European scholars. It had never been tried in isolation and had no long-term track record of success (such success as was attributed in the past has been questioned, to put it mildly). Now that is has been attempted, the idea that cutting taxes for rich folk will lead to overall economic gains has been proven NOT to work.

On a purely personal level, Mr. Blunt and Cranky loves tax cuts. But he is fully aware that from the 40’s through the early 70’s, our nation’s economic and tax policies fueled its most productive expansion ever,  in terms of infrastructure, personal liberty, and overall economic and social prosperity.  Said expansion started to wane as the supply-siders took over, slowed further, and is deader than a doorknob at present. Hell, we are sliding backwards, watching the achievements of the last century crumble around our ears.

This writer heard Mr. Laffer on the news this morning: in response to criticism, he stated that economists who disagreed with him “spent too much time looking at data”. He also said that data was good, but you had to “interpret” it. Put another way, the fool lives in a dream world, an ivory tower, a think tank; somewhere NOT connected with reality.  If the data says your idea is not working, then anyone who has spent any time on Planet Reality will reexamine their idea. But not Mr. Laffer and his mindless Supply-Side Lemming Brigade.

If anybody could provide a real-world example in which this laughable notion had actually worked, maybe we could give it more time. But no one has provided such an example, because Supply Side has never worked for more than a few years. Not once. Not ever. Not in recorded history. It is a pipe dream that has become dogma, and hard though it may be, it is time to stop huffing on the Laffer pipe, expel the Laffing Gas, and return to the common-sense economic policies that have been proven to work throughout history.

Mr. B & C

Rule One of Holes: When You’re In One, Stop Digging

A few hundred years ago, some slick-talking, amoral scumbuckets conned a lot of gullible people into believing that people of African descent were subnormal, subhuman creatures that could be used as slave labor. Even as it became obvious that this was an enormous, steaming heap of honkey bollocks, the racists doubled down on their flawed ideology.  “We need to be tougher on them, then it’ll work. Honest.”  So various idiots and greedheads tried to beat, shoot, and pummel black folk into “place”, and of course failed miserably.

About a hundred years ago, a disgruntled academic and his pet pamphleteer invented Communism, and some countries decided it was gospel truth and proceeded to implement it. Even as the people realized that Marxism/Leninism was an enormous, steaming heap of reindeer bollocks, the governments doubled down on their flawed ideology.  “We need to be better Communists, and then it will work. Honest.” The commies tried to beat, shoot, and pummel the proletariat into “place”, and in all but a few cases failed miserably.

Thus proving Rule One of Holes. In each of the above examples, people started digging a “hole” without at first realizing it, and then continued on even when it became clear that things were not working as planned. Sensible people would agree that further digging would deepen the hole and so one should stop, put the dirt back, and do something else instead of enabling the entombing of one’s self by digging ever deeper. Alas, many people are not sensible.

Starting in the late 1970’s and since then enthusiastically promoted by the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush administrations, the Hole Du Jour has been “Supply-Side Economics”: the idea that redistributing tax breaks and benefits towards the already wealthy will create a stronger and more prosperous economy for everyone. It seemed (like racism and Communism, once) plausible to many; at least, at first it did.  But as it turns out, this idea has been proven to be an enormous, steaming heap of bison bollocks, and one that has dug us all into one helluva deep hole at that. Trillions of dollars deep, and deepening by the day.

So how does your friendly neighborhood supply-sider react to the news? Why, just like the racists and commies did: they are doubling down on their flawed ideology. “We need to cut even more, spend even less, give even more to the rich, then it’ll work. Honest.” Sounds familiar, eh?

Continuing to dig will work just as well as it did in the past: that is to say, not at all. It’s time to stop digging, climb out, and try another approach that does not involve the digging of our own fiscal grave. Rule One of Holes, folks. Learn it. Love it. Live it.

Mr. B & C