George Rebane

I have cited this advice from Ludwig von Mises since the federal bailouts and stimulus packages started gaining traction.  The last post on this was in January, and it generated a reasoned debate between two RR readers.  The real objectives of the TARP and ARRA money bags was to increase the size/role of government across our land, and paying off union votes by keeping the auto companies from filing for bankruptcy at the proper time.  But Team Obama may have made a mistake by being too specific when selling their spending and printing plans.  They showed us something against which we can measure performance – a big no-no for a politician.

From the graphic below (augmented from powerlineblog.com, and a H/T to Russ Steele for the alert on this.), it appears that we’re now spending the prescribed trillions, and producing even higher unemployment than the President’s mavens predicted.  True to form, no one in the politburo knows how to centrally manage this economy.  And behold, Sec Treasury Geithner finally admitted on PBS Charlie Rose yesterday that the Fed had a major role in building the credit bubble during the last six years.  Given all the almost free money, the banks and consumers seemed to have acted more reasonably than they have been accused.

Didn’t someone say, ‘When you’re already in a hole, stop digging!’?  Call your electeds.