Obama Gives Keynes His First Real-World Test

Re:Obama Gives Keynes His First Real-World Test by anamax on Monday February 02, 2009 @12:08AM (#461892)

> I expect the secret is finding the correct amount of growth and unemployment.

It's not clear that there is "the correct amount". There's probably a correct amount in a given line of work at any moment in time, but that's not actionable.

The problem with trying to guide the economy is that the guiders always have an agenda.

Remember "he meant well" is an insult.

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Re:Obama Gives Keynes His First Real-World Test by Retric on Monday February 02, 2009 @09:35AM (#462301)

I don't think these things need to be extremely accurate. If there is a lot of work for plumbers and little for physicists then some of them will make the jump. If the average person is unemployed for 3 months every 3 years that's 8.3% unemployment. But, while 2 weeks every 6 months is not that bad 1 year every 12 is a killer.

My point is simply that a light hand is probably better, but avoiding acting when things are getting really bad is a horrible idea.

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Re:Obama Gives Keynes His First Real-World Test by anamax on Monday February 02, 2009 @12:06PM (#462520)

> My point is simply that a light hand is probably better, but avoiding acting when things are getting really bad is a horrible idea.

Govt doesn't do "light hand". Moreover, doing the wrong thing is worse than doing nothing. The US govt is still trying to protect textile jobs in the Carolinas. (It would be mean to point out the mess that is govt efforts wrt the auto industry.)

When proposing/supporting regulation, it's poor form to assume that it will be done "correctly" by "the right people". Instead, you should assume what we actually observe - that it will be done badly, if not maliciously, by incompetents.

If you want to assume "correctly by the right people", make an existing govt system IN THE US work that way.

You're assuming (1) "a light hand" is a stable situation and (2) that the folks doing the acting will do

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Re:Obama Gives Keynes His First Real-World Test by Retric on Monday February 02, 2009 @04:37PM (#462932)

I am suggesting a light hand is a better approach than what we have been doing. IMO, it is much harder to try and get the government to do nothing about the economy than to get the government to take it easy.

Example of the government using a "light hand" the borders. Food safety inspections. Most pollution controls.

There are plenty of areas where the government's approach is to wait for problems and then step in. The millions of illegal immigrants in the US is not really a hard problem to stop from an enforcement standpoint, but in this case the government seems to focus on the appearance of doing stuff vs actually doing stuff.

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Re:Obama Gives Keynes His First Real-World Test by anamax on Monday February 02, 2009 @05:10PM (#462987)

> Example of the government using a "light hand" the borders.

Would this be the borders where they seize laptops and randomly harass people? Or, the borders that are completely uncontrolled?

I don't think that "light" means "a random mix of hard and none".

> Food safety inspections.

I'd put that under incompetent, not light.

> Most pollution controls.

You're joking, right?

> but in this case the government seems to focus on the appearance of doing stuff vs actually doing stuff.

"in this case" suggests that focusing on appearance is the exception, not the rule. It may not be the majority, but ....

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