Jun 26 2009
Expect Decades Of Mass Unemployment As Result Of Liberal Economic Experiments
Well, we seem to be assured that the end of liberalism will be a spectacular failure. Between the failed liberal economic stimulus package – which is not stimulating any new jobs – and the energy tax & trade bill being voted on in the house, we could see an economic depression coming our way.
The American Farm Bureau warns that cap and trade would cost the average farmer $175 on every dairy cow and $80 for beef cattle. So farm-state politics trumped climate change.
We all know about farmers paid not to grow food. But now, American taxpayers apparently will be paying companies not to chop down trees. The Washington Times reports that as part of the legislation, the House will also be voting Friday on a plan to pay domestic and international companies around the world not to cut down trees.
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As we’ve said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million (see charts below).
Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once put it, by 90% adjusted for inflation. Inflation-adjusted gasoline prices would rise 74%, residential natural gas prices by 55% and the average family’s annual energy bill by $1,500.
Hit hardest by all this would be the “95% of working families” Obama keeps mentioning as being protected from increased taxation.Â
The article points out the incredible spike in unemployment these useless reduction in CO2 emissions will cost (for the last decade CO2 levels have risen sharply, and global temperatures have been falling – more here):
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I mean, how many job destroying policies have to be enacted to kill finally our economy? We shall soon find out it seems. The stimulus bill is piling up the national debt and annual deficit, both of which pull investment money out of the economy for expansion and new jobs. The energy taxes will further pull more money out of the economy, money that would be spent by consumers. The health care policy will shutter much of the only industry not in recession – the health industry. Insurance companies will close, small private doctors’ practices will close, local private practices will close.
We are heading into a disaster of epic proportions economically – all thanks to foolish liberal policy experiments.
I’m heartened to see you get on board and realize why I’ve been so pessimistic about this administration. This is a freight train that has been headed at us since November 8th. Yes, absolutely – these policies are not just going to hurt our economy, these policies are going to drag the world down into the second great depression, since America is still the economic engine of the world.
And none of this is new – they are just doing exactly what they’ve said they would do all through the campaign. I guess very few people could bring themselves to believe that they were actually going to do what they said they were going to do.
There is still hope – cap and trade isn’t guaranteed, and the health care bill might stall as well. (Isn’t this just the perfect time to try sucking another $1 trillion out of the economy?)
Hope – what an irony. The one great hope this country has left is that this administration fails in what it has set out to do.
What I don’t understand is HOW people who vote democrat and aren’t idealogues can’t see this. I don’t understand at all. I hope it won’t be too late. I hope Cap n Trade goes down in flames.
I say let the progressives succeed, absolutely, spectacularly. Don’t stand in their way. Let the “one” have it all. Americans need to know in measurable terms the consequences of progressivism. It’s not going to be a pretty picture. But the consequences will be irrefutable.
You should check John Mauldin’s weekly emails. The one he sent from a week ago showed a bunch graphs comparing today’s numbers against the Great Depression numbers. Those graphs are chilling enough and clearly indicative of a great depression already here.
I agree with kathie. These things need to happen to force these idiots to finally understand the concepts of free market economics.
I cannot believe that Obama would not force his family members to follow the public option of health care but rather to ensure themselves the best care that they can get.
Still boycotting ABC.
Found the article John Mauldin talked about…
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3421
Really depressing and no pun intended.
I’m delighted to see the end of liberalism…if it IS the end.
But I’m also mindful that taking command of the ship of state AFTER it hits the iceberg is no joke. A lot of people are going to get hurt.
And be wary – this is the sort of environment in which a REAL fascist regime can flourish. Economic crisis, combined with an identifiable target, is ripe soil for that sort of thing.
WWS,
I was not Pollyannish about Obama. I was glad to see him not undo all the work we did under President Bush in Iraq, Aghanistan and Pakistan – not to mention FISA-NSA. Reversing our national security AND tanking the economy would have brought on WW III!
I knew the man would stumble on the economy. I knew he would damage the country. I do know a lot of what he has done can be undone when (or if) the people want it undone.
I also know this is a democracy with a constitution. And if the people decide to go down a path I do not agree with, it is my job to get over it and support the nation I believe in.
Mike, I agree, and there is even more at stake than you imagine.
Yes, this country would eventually recover – but if we drop out of economic competitiveness for a decade or so (reference Japan’s “lost decade” when pursuing policies not as bad as this)
then the world we recover into will be a new Chinese dominated world, with the US as a distant second fiddle, maybe even third behind the EU.
And even worse than that is that the Chinese will likely hold so much of our debt that we will be unable to take any international actions without asking the Chinese for permission first. Remember – if they call our debt, they can crush what’s left of our economy overnight. That situation only gets worse as the debt grows, and boy hidee, is it ever growing.
Now the Chinese don’t want to crush us, because they don’t need to. They just want to own us in the realm of international policy making – and that’s where this show is headed in a few short years.
And we won’t have a chance in hell of turning that around once it’s happened. If this runaway freight train isn’t stopped, we’ll all need to learn how to say “Thank you sir, may I have another?” in Mandarin.
The potential collapse of the US economy affects the war against the jihadis, because if we fall apart our ability to wage war in Afghanistan and to oppose the Mullahs in Iran will also fall apart. If we fail economically, we will soon fail internationally – one will inevitably lead to the other. Which is why that though I am glad that Obama has not diverged from GWB’s foreign policy in any real way yet, his domestic policies and actions will soon force him to. The current situation is unsustainable, and it will resolve badly because of the bad decisions being made.
“I also know this is a democracy with a constitution. And if the people decide to go down a path I do not agree with, it is my job to get over it and support the nation I believe in.”
I wouldn’t have supported Neville Chamberlain in 1935. (a democracy without a constitution) I wouldn’t have supported Jeff Davis in 1863. (that was a democracy with a constitution)
When a nation allows itself to go down a clearly self destructive path, even if it has popular support in doing so, a moral person who sees what is happening must withold his or her support. Otherwise he is morally complicit in the results.
That does NOT mean doing anything immoral or illegal to oppose the government – but it does mean taking all legal and moral steps to make one’s opposition known. No matter how much opprobium one will earn by going against what at the time are politically popular positions.
Winston Churchill was bitterly unpopular with the English people in 1935. Neville Chamberlain was widely loved. This only got worse as Winston spoke out publicly against him, constantly. Winston did NOT simply say “oh well, I support this government since it’s popular.” He fought its decisions constantly, becoming more unpopular as he did so. Until payment for all of the bad choices came due….
But by the time that happened, it was almost too late for the UK to survive. Without someone like Churchill, it wouldn’t have.
kathie – “I say let the progressives succeed, absolutely, spectacularly. Don’t stand in their way. Let the “one†have it all. Americans need to know in measurable terms the consequences of progressivism. It’s not going to be a pretty picture. But the consequences will be irrefutable.”
Kathie, we’re in a very dangerous situation to think this way — I do appreciate the way you are feeling, but it is not too late to change things. Obama won with 53% of the vote. All that needs to happen is that last 4% needs to flip over to the other side and it will change the outcome the next time around. When gas goes to $6 per gallon (it’s at $3 here in California already), unemployment goes to 15% and the dollar buys half of what it used to, people will see Obama for the carney act that he is. Not that the GOP isn’t doing everything it can to shoot itself in the foot every time you turn on the news.
A friend of mine from Sweden told me what happened there after their banking crisis a decade ago or so… People still pay 50% taxes, but they get no services (healthcare, welfare, etc). All that tax money goes to pay off the interest on the previous debts. Once the U.S. dollar currency crisis hits (this fall, next spring, it’s almost guaranteed to happen), it will be over in a few months and it will take DECADES to dig out. Have fun everybody!
I am not so optimistic about the end of liberalism. People get used to what they have now. I expect both the cap and trade and the national health insurance will be implemented in small steps. That will result in a slow increase in the pain rather than an easily identifiable cause.
I go back to Frank and Dodd and the mortgage mess. Politicians are slippery guys. Those responsible for the mess often manage not only to blame someone else, but also to be get themselves in charge of fixing the mess, thereby making it even worse.
Rick
WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Greg Walden, R-Ore., ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, today asked Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Oversight Committee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., to begin an investigation on the process the Environmental Protection Agency used in developing its endangerment finding.
The endangerment finding, if formalized by a rule, would allow the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act, something U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., once called “a glorious mess.â€
“It appears the administration and EPA administrator rushed to issue the proposed endangerment finding without considering fully substantive analysis and views of senior EPA career staff within the agency,†Barton and Walden wrote. “The attached EPA emails raise serious questions about the process for developing the proposed endangerment finding, whether analysis or information was suppressed because it did not support the administration and/or administrator’s proposed finding, and/or whether there is a fear within the agency that there will be negative consequences for offices that offer views critical of the prevailing views of the administrator and the administration.â€
Concerned Citizen………we are being lied to, I know that we are by the President…….but the majority doesn’t get it yet. I think we have to go to 15% unemployment, sky rocketing gas and grocery prices and what socialized medicine really means ( government and union employees exempt) before those middle class folks really get it. The ramifications of Obama’s policies need to hit home for the middle class before we can vote Obama out.
Neo – if you haven’t already, go to the “Watts up with that” blog (link on this page, in the blogroll) and read the story of how a blogger dug up the hard evidence and blew that story wide open.
It won’t be covered by the mainstream media at all, of course, but it’s one of the most spectacular internet investigative reporting stories of the year.
The internet is now the place where TRUE journalism is being done.
Those tariffs in Waxman-Markey are already having an effect …
A Chinese firm’s bid to buy the gas-guzzling Hummer car brand will be blocked on environmental grounds, according to Chinese state radio.
Steve Rattner call your office
“India will not accept any emission-reduction target — period,†Ramesh said. “This is a non-negotiable stand.â€
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The legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives to impose trade penalties on nations that do not accept limits on global warming pollution is a concern for India, Ramesh said.
“We reject the use of climate as a non-tariff barrier,†the minister said. “We comprehensively and categorically reject any attempt to introduce climate change†as part of World Trade Organization talks.