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

richard_daily said:

Wait, so you supported the first stimulus, but not the second?

Wow, aren't you a partisan hack.

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Ulaven_Demorte said:

Still trying to tie the current administration to "those godless commies" I see.

This tactic of the "right" was explained very well in an article I read recently..

The right’s need for enemies is coded in its political DNA. Without enemies to defeat, vanquish and even destroy, the right would suffer an existential crisis. For Goldwater it was the Communist menace; for Wallace, integrationists and intellectuals; for Nixon, liberals, antiwar activists and black radicals; for Reagan, labor, welfare queens and the Evil Empire; for Gingrich and his cohorts it was gays, feminists, welfare mothers and the Democrats; during the Bush years, it was Islam, immigrants, gays and abortionists; For the Tea Party, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, it’s all of the above.

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richard_daily said:

Every generation, we see a new invented or created enemy for the right wing to rally their flock against...

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Frisco_Slug_Esq said:

But everyone knows that the best way to stimulate an economy is to have your window broken!

Ask U_D...

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Ulaven_Demorte said:

You've been banging that "broken window fallacy" parable of Bastiat's for quite some time now. Ignoring of course that it's focused only on microeconomics and trying to apply the rather limited application universally.

Even intentional destruction of real value may not result in a net loss. For example, destruction during wars has more often than not led to forced modernization and innovation of technologies resulting in an overall increase in productivity.

Also, Bastiat's parable relied on the implication that the little boy who broke the shopkeeps window had been hired to do so by the glazier in order to increase his business and that the new windows held no increase in value over the old.

In your effort to force the Broken Window parable to fit your narrative you have ignored the fact that there is no "little boy" hired to destroy our infrastructure, that it must be constantly maintained due to the wear and tear of use and natural erosion by natural forces.

Infrastructure repairs are essential and have been ignored for far too long. Our roads and bridges must be maintained and expanded to support the population, many of whom could not go to work and support the economy without the results of these "socialist" projects.

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richard_daily said:

Without working "socialist" highways, business falters. Without working "socialist" rail, business falters.

Additionally; right wingers try to state that WW2 jump started the economy after the great depression, NOT the new deal, so if that's the case, it's a perfect example of right wingers using the broken window theory themselves...

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vetteman said:

Not really. They are non-interest bearing, and they do not meet the legal definition of a note in that they no longer say how they are to be redeemed and they are no longer a promise to pay in "lawful money" as required by law. See USC 12 Section 411:

Federal reserve notes, to be issued at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for the purpose of making advances to Federal reserve banks through the Federal reserve agents as hereinafter set forth and for no other purpose, are authorized. The said notes shall be obligations of the United States and shall be receivable by all national and member banks and Federal reserve banks and for all taxes, customs, and other public dues. They shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States, in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, or at any Federal Reserve bank.

There's a reason for the term "lawful money," it's in the Constitution Article I Section 10, "make anything but gold or silver coin a tender in the payment of debts."

Fact is a Federal Reserve Note is not lawful money as it is defined in the Constitution.

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koalabear said:

Someone should have noticed we already had the highway stimulus and all it did was buy expensive signs.

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richard_daily said:

Without working "socialist" highways, business falters. Without working "socialist" rail, business falters.

Additionally; right wingers try to state that WW2 jump started the economy after the great depression, NOT the new deal, so if that's the case, it's a perfect example of right wingers using the broken window theory themselves...

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Ham Murabi said:

Socialist rail systems like Burlington Northern?

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richard_daily said:

Burlington Northern built rail lines?

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vetteman said:

Just pointing out the facts Johnny, and money is not all the same. Please, don't marginalize me as a "goldnik" just because I pointed out the law. I already addressed that part of the Constitution you just quoted in an earlier post in this thread. BTW, the rising price of gold tells you more about the worth of the dollar than it does the availability of gold.

If we repealed the legal tender laws in America, what do you think the market would settle on as a means of exchange if it were free to do so?

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Ham Murabi said:

If BNSF didn't, surely its predecessors did. Bone up on your history.

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Ham Murabi said:

If BNSF didn't, surely its predecessors did. Bone up on your history.

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JohnnySavage said:

You're not suggesting that the rights of way were not taken via eminent domain, are you?

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Ham Murabi said:

I don't recall saying anything about that.
But I'll go on record as saying the U.S. Government Railroad Company did not complete the first transcontinental railroad, or the second.

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richard_daily said:

Now you're backpeddling.

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IrezumiKiss said:

Or, in the context of the railroad motif, he's backtracking.

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vetteman said:

Here above is how the conversation developed. As I said the Congress imposed a more stringent standard on the states than on themselves, but then came up with the Coinage Act of 1792 and slapped the death penalty on anyone guilty of debasing the coinage.

Wonder how that would be received in Washington today?

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