What happened to all of the doom and gloom economic threads?

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Our Partisan Bureaucracy — Lawyers Love President Obama


By David French

June 12, 2013 4:14 PM

obama-support-percentages.png


Thanks to the TaxProf blog and to Instapundit, I discovered this chart detailing political giving by government lawyers:



With certain limitations understood (we don’t know the affiliations of non-donors), the chart above looks more like the political affiliations of Ivy League women’s-studies departments than those of an allegedly impartial federal bureaucracy.

The civil-service system was designed to replace the spoils system, which — in addition to creating chaotic rushes of office-seekers with each change of administration — packed political hacks into important administrative positions. A civil service was supposed to change that unacceptable reality by placing the administration of the more neutral functions of the government into the hands of dispassionate professionals. Thus the strong federal job security in the civil service, greater security than enjoyed by virtually any private-sector employee. The job security — so the argument goes — was necessary to prevent the re-emergence of blatant political patronage.

But what if the combination of increasingly activist government with strong bureacratic bias re-creates federal service as a kind of permanent spoils system for the Left? Isn’t it inevitable that this leftist bureaucracy will eventually view itself not as a servant for all citizens but as an instrument of its own righteous ideology?

If the recent history of our universities is any guide, the products of a leftist bureacratic monoculture will be characterized by the following:

Ignorance: Groups of like-minded people are notoriously incurious about the ideas and perspectives of dissenters.

Condescension: They don’t let ignorance stand in the way of a bulletproof sense of moral and intellectual superiority.

Hatred: Since all the good people they know agree with them, they ascribe the worst of motives to the other side, believing them to be motivated by little more than greed and bigotry.

And, finally . . .

Fanaticism: Cass Sunstein described the ”law of group polarization” like this: “In a striking empirical regularity, deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments.” In other words, when like-minded individuals deliberate, their common views grow more extreme over time.

We conservatives have a problem with Big Government, no matter who’s running it. But we also have a particular problem with this big government, as key agencies are increasingly staffed and run by individuals who wield enormous power, cannot be fired, and despise roughly half the American population. When Barack Obama urges supporters to “punish our enemies,” there are many federal employees only too willing to comply.
 
They need to think back to what it took for them to rise out of the ashes of total economic destruction. They need to remember how they became the Japanese superstate, the economic miracle of the world. They need to re-visit the "ruthless efficiency" with which they destroyed inefficient enterprise in their economy. They need to remember what it was like when their economy free and unencumbered by crony capitalism, central planning, and mega-regulation...as a matter of fact, so do we.

In regard to deflation, here's how Ken Courtis sized it up in the WSJ:

"Should inflation rise substantially, as is Tokyo’s declared objective, interest rates would surely follow. The problem here is that debt service already swallows a quarter of Japan’s annual budget — and government debt is set to hit 250% of GDP by the end of next year … As the average cost of government funding begins adjusting upward to account for quintupled interest rates, debt service, like a giant python, would swallow virtually the entire budget. What’s more, with 2.5% interest rates on public-sector debt of 250% of GDP, Japan would have to grow nominal GDP by 6.25% per year simply to keep its debt level from increasing. In real terms (adjusting for 2% inflation), real annual growth would have to be 4.25%. Real growth of 4.25% is conceivable in the abstract, but will not occur on a sustained basis for Japan during our lifetimes."

Continuing on:

"Moving from mild deflation to sharply higher inflation will expose Japan to risks of vast financial turmoil. Yet it is to this very risk that Tokyo is now opening the door. Given the size of its economy, the scale of its debt and how tightly its financial system is interwoven with world markets, Tokyo’s strategy holds frightening implications for us all."

They had the US as an export market.

It's not rocket science, but somehow it still confuses you.
 
“Monetary policies — including unconventional measures — have helped prop up the advanced economies, and in turn, global growth,” IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said. “The reforms just announced by the Bank of Japan are another welcome step in this direction.”

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, who has been cheering on Abe’s new policies, emphatically declared the BOJ’s strategy would work. “Seriously, this is very good news,” he commented in a blog post. “Japan is finally, finally making a real effort to escape from its deflation trap. We should all hope it succeeds.”

Link

Deflation is a very real issue in Japan. Difficult times call for difficult measures.
 
US economy growing at 2.5%, even accounting for a 1% drag due to a shrinking government. 3.5% looks pretty good.:cool:
 
US economy growing at 2.5%, even accounting for a 1% drag due to a shrinking government. 3.5% looks pretty good.:cool:

so Mr Genius

you are CONTRA DICK TING the FED who said there is NO DRAG?

where do you see 2.5%.....ObamaSTOOGE:confused:
 
so Mr Genius

you are CONTRA DICK TING the FED who said there is NO DRAG?

where do you see 2.5%.....ObamaSTOOGE:confused:

I report, you decide:cool:


Got nothing to do with whoever is president. The president is impotent... irrelevant... hamstrung...

When one door closes for one business, another door opens for another business. It's the circle of life.
 
I report, you decide:cool:


Got nothing to do with whoever is president. The president is impotent... irrelevant... hamstrung...

When one door closes for one business, another door opens for another business. It's the circle of life.

show me 2,5%

show me 1% drag

when YOU or OTHERS say the PRES has nothing to do with it, you are in effect saying, OBAMA IS A LOSER and INCOMPETANT

cause he has EVERYTHING to do with it
 
69 points.

Why do you ask?


Obligatory kick to your scrotum: How much has your gold lost over the last month or so?

Only 56 now, Vette.

Where do you go from here?

Vale Brazil was waaaay oversold. I'm about to make a lot of money.
 
OFT EVIL WILL SHALL EVIL MAR: ObamaCare Doing What Term-Limits Movement Couldn’t. “Dozens of lawmakers and aides are so afraid that their health insurance premiums will skyrocket next year thanks to Obamacare that they are thinking about retiring early or just quitting.”
 
OFT EVIL WILL SHALL EVIL MAR: ObamaCare Doing What Term-Limits Movement Couldn’t. “Dozens of lawmakers and aides are so afraid that their health insurance premiums will skyrocket next year thanks to Obamacare that they are thinking about retiring early or just quitting.”


That's just because of the stupid Grassley amendment.
 
OFT EVIL WILL SHALL EVIL MAR: ObamaCare Doing What Term-Limits Movement Couldn’t. “Dozens of lawmakers and aides are so afraid that their health insurance premiums will skyrocket next year thanks to Obamacare that they are thinking about retiring early or just quitting.”

Good!
 
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