The absolutely best line of the article:

"Too many people who argue that there is a beneficial role for the government to play in the economy glide swiftly from that to the conclusion that the government will in fact confine itself to playing such a role."

I have regular arguments with one of these guys.

Hence, the tiresome, continuous fearmongering by the media telling us ad nauseum that we should be worried and depressed, and telling us that we should expect the 'guvament ta do sumpthin'.And jumping on PMSH for 'finally' saying the 'R' word.

Just doing their job, eh?

And it comes back to bite them as your earlier post today tells us. Good!

"We're from the government and we are here to help you"

Be afraid, be very afraid.

On the other hand, four years of Obamanomics should provide goldmines of scary waste, stupid snivel servant decisions and utter economic stupidity that will define the race in 2012.

Socialism always collapses from internal greed - when too many people get their lip lock on the public teat and never want to let go of their self defined entitlements.

There just aren't enough teats to go around . . . despite what Buzz Hargrove & Whacko Jacko whine on about.

Yes, but we are only two months into this global collapse. The Depression includes two of the years with the biggest gains in stock market history. You can't judge an economic trend from just a few moments of being in it. Check back with me in 10 years and I'll comment on the comparison. Right now, I'm just holding onto my hat and trying to get my bearings while on this roller coaster.

I get annoyed at the negative press all the time. And at the talking heads.

And idiots who say "who'd buy a GM car because there may be no warranty? We need to bail out GM and remove the uncertainty." Do you really think North America doesn't have at least one entrepreneur who will buy up every bit of GM inventory so they are the sole source for parts for the millions of cars out on the road? Or that some other person won't start making after market parts? If GM goes under, the sun will come out tomorrow and you can bet people will make money off the bankruptcy. It just won't be union workers.

My consulting business has no work right now. My salary this year will be 44% of last year's, and next year may be even lower. But I'm not whining. I'm just trying to figure out where the bucks are to be made, and how to preserve the nest egg I had built up during the good times.

Thomas Sowell for POTUS. Head and shoulders ahead of the current President Elect. Probably born in the USA too!

Right on Kevin. People do what they are incented to do. In government bureaucracy, position, rank, compensation are dependent on the size of budget one controls. The incentive is to build an empire. You can only do that by expanding a mandate.

There has to be a counterforce against the natural tendency of bureaucrats to mission creep, sucking up our productivity and redistributing it in nonproductive ways. Our media won't do that, they are part of the game.

Yes, but we are only two months into this global collapse. The Depression includes two of the years with the biggest gains in stock market history. You can't judge an economic trend from just a few moments of being in it. Check back with me in 10 years and I'll comment on the comparison. Right now, I'm just holding onto my hat and trying to get my bearings while on this roller coaster.

I get annoyed at the negative press all the time. And at the talking heads.

And idiots who say "who'd buy a GM car because there may be no warranty? We need to bail out GM and remove the uncertainty." Do you really think North America doesn't have at least one entrepreneur who will buy up every bit of GM inventory so they are the sole source for parts for the millions of cars out on the road? Or that some other person won't start making after market parts? If GM goes under, the sun will come out tomorrow and you can bet people will make money off the bankruptcy. It just won't be union workers.

My consulting business has no work right now. My salary this year will be 44% of last year's, and next year may be even lower. But I'm not whining. I'm just trying to figure out where the bucks are to be made, and how to preserve the nest egg I had built up during the good times.

I love listening to a younger Thomas Sowell in the Free to Choose youtube vids, chipping in with his thoughts to Friedman's ideas

Uh oh.

Ideology be damned, this here's time for action.." paraphrasing Steven Harper, Nov24-08

"Mr. Clement is the first federal politician to indicate that union concessions must be part of an overall plan to help rescue General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC."

Union concessions - check

"Mr. Clement just returned from a trip to Detroit and Washington, where he met with political officials and senior company executives about proposals for a financial aid package for the industry."

Timeline and budget - check

"They demanded the automakers submit "viability" plans by Dec. 2 detailing their cash needs and proving their capacity to repay any loans given. Congress is expected to sit again the week of Dec. 8 to consider the plans."

Contract to perform micromanagement - check

Flaherty said he met with leaders of Canadian municipalities along with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Transport Minister John Baird and asked them bluntly to give Ottawa a list of construction projects "that are environmentally approved that can go now, that can put a shovel on the ground now." "This needs to happen as soon as possible," he said. "We are working with the provinces, the territories, the municipalities, to accelerate our infrastructure investments."

Floodgates opened - check

Ensuring infrastructure spending quotes changed to 'investment' is 'newspeak' - an Orwellian bastardization of fact.

Since the assets depreciate - these 'investments' by definition are not investments. It's spending.

Newspeak from the Cons. George would be proud.

He should have won the Nobel and not that latest idiot.

When Sowell dies we are so ****ed. No one else can explain complex economic issues like he can. He's amazing.

Sorry hardboiled.
Investment in infrastructure means employment.Better than handouts in the welfare industry.
Common sense.
Here's my wish list:
Let the Big 3 go down,lay off all the undereducated, overpayed union saps(I'm from Windsor...I know them well)
And let them work in the construction business for awhile.Cities will have the necessary upgrades and not the handouts.
Real work, dirty boots, long hours.
They'll wish they hadn't peed in the gas tank in the gravy days.

Hard to argue with Thomas Sowell. I've read several of his books -- all of them crisp, clear and concise. He's a genius.
Government can only do what it's ever been able to do -- suck money out of the productive businesses and sectors of the economy and plough it into economic dead ends. The only government spending that has any prospect of creating a net productive benefit is spending on infrastructure, utilities and security -- both domestic and international. After that, it's at best inefficient and at worst counter-productive.

As an addition to bluetech's comments:

Make it a rule that if infrastucture projects are offered to a city then anybody who's been laid off cannot collect unemployment/welfare and should find employment with the projects.

I'm originally from Windsor too, and I remember a few years back the surrounding farms had a bumper year but couldn't find anybody to pick produce (the city had provided Greyhound buses to and from the fields--the only takers were university and high school students who wanted to make a little more money before school started)because the indolent were making more money on the dole than actually going out and working.

I know it's a little radical...but I can dream can't I? Like I tell my sons everyday...there is no shame to an honest job or an honest day of labour.

favill

Terence Corcoran calls it 'Disaster Socialism'.

blyetech, favill, hehe! thank you,,, a little common sense, seemingly more rare these daze at sda, is affirming ~regards

Government spending in infrastructure is not investment, the same as military 'spending'. These are expenditures to facilitate economic capability, or to increase a nation's security.

One does not 'invest' in expenses.

And curiously, seeing DrD agree with Sowell, yet declare energy a public good and essential service is just brutal. Nationalizing energy is a good idea for governments to undertake? How about wires? Pipelines? Skids? Heck, maybe Petro Canada wasn't such a bad idea, it was just done wrong?

Energy companies figured out years ago that vertical integration was key to improved profitability. The government should take it all over - to maximize efficiency and get best value for taxpayers, no?

Unless we can get clarity on what 'utilities' should be built and subsidized by our dear leaders in government.

Yet our leprechaun in residence is already winding up the messaging machine. Get them shovels in the ground? Or how about the 5th rebuild of the St. John's wharf in 14 years? Lemme guess, it was time for a makeover?

Clement is building a bureaucracy to ensure Big 3 compliance with the strings attached billions to come.

And on and on goes the song....while the progs and faux-cons are confident that their spending will get it right - as long as it's done different this time....

As the circles around the drain keep tightening, the velocity increases. Things are speeding up, so we must be getting closer to the drain. It seems pretty inevitable that we will disappear down that hole sometime in the future.
Nobody out there has the brains to make a decisive step to stop the craziness. Rather, they reach in the bag of policy failures & give it another try hoping that this time the outcome will be different.
The outcome will be the same and we pretty well know where that takes us.

Sowell is easily one of the best commentators out there.

Flaherty is looking more like a big L liberal every day. Gov't spending its way out of a recession has never worked. It is complete nonsense.

Gov't doesn't create wealth it can only redistribute wealth. Hardboiled is right.

the real depression didn't start until 1933 after the government decided it would fix things. the current crop of dolts is embarking on similar courses of action.

Thomas Sowell. One of the last real thinkers. His kind will be missed.

hardboiled... I've heard that in Ontario, Tories use inflation and currency debasement as remedy for cough,acne and diarrhea.

And the masses are eating up the Hysteria being spooned out by the MSMers.

Ignoramuses following idiots following cretins.

It's a pity men like Mr. Sowell are too smart and honest to run for office. The world would be a better place.

"Thomas Sowell is a genius."

Go to Youtube and look up Thomas Sowell-Welfare and the 4:23 debate where he kicks the living crap out of the Secretary of Welfare for the State of Pennsylvania. The video is the tail end of a PBS episode of Milton Friedman's Free to Choose.

Like a drum, he beats her over the head with the fact that "you will always have a bottom 20%" and after several minutes of hammering with no perceptible synapses firing in the cranium of said Secretary of Welfare, Sowell concludes that her skull is made of the hardest mineral known to mankind:

Fool's Gold.

And once you're finished with that, wash it down with Youtube's Mark Steyn on Multiculturalism -- 8:03 of bliss.

there are lies

damn lies

and

political truths