Wish it were Ron!
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TW
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Friday, October 17, 2008
Obama's Corporatist Economic Advisors
Obama's Corporatist Economic Advisors
Hopefully, they'll leave us with some change
Barack Obama's economic advisors include some youngish Democratic centrists, genuinely bright economists like Austan Goolsbee and Jason Furman. Their pedigrees include Yale, MIT, Harvard and the University of Chicago, an historically free-market bastion. In many instances, these individuals display a surprising sensitivity to recognizing the spontaneous order brought about by millions of actors in the marketplace. However, the few relatively sane positions they hold will likely be drowned out by the converging cavalcade of interest groups that will accompany a potential Obama victory.
In spite of Obama's anti-trade campaign rhetoric, the members of his economic brain trust are friendly to trade and globalization - so much so that the far left has screamed bloody murder, accusing Furman and Goolsbee of having "Wall Street viewpoints" and being "crypto-Bushies." Furman authored a notable paper lauding the salutary effects of Wal-Mart's low prices. Speaking of the net benefits that Wal-Mart's cost savings gave the working poor -- an estimated $263 billion dollars -- Furman declared "there are very few public policies that I’ve advocated in my life that would make as big a difference as that." His estimates of wage suppression ran about $5 billion. "It's just an enormous differential." The Nation's Naomi Klein almost summons the lynch mob, and then concludes their saving grace might just be their paeans to Keynesianism and John Kenneth Galbraith.
Obama's Democratic "Chicago Boys" recognize the value of lower corporate tax rates in principle. Goolsbee determined in a study that taxing Internet transactions could reduce sales by up to a third and stunt e-commerce significantly. Furman has called for lowering tax rates generally and broadening the tax base by limiting special exemptions, calling incentives to invest in tax-favored activities (as opposed to economically productive activities) perverse. In a July 24 interview with NPR, Furman rattled off an astonishing litany of potential budget savings, including ending some subsidies and overpayments to Medicare, banks that make student loans (!), and wealthy farmers.
On the other hand, these things are now de rigueur in any intelligent discussion of political economics today. Only the truly unlettered deny that confiscatory tax rates, complicated tax codes and protectionism are detrimental to a country's economic well-being.
One would hope such bright young minds would find their own voice and not serve as servile executors of viagrafied interest groups, from longshoremen to Lehman Brothers. Will they just go along with the most noxious proposals the Obama team brings to the table? One particularly ominous piece of legislation is the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, a labor-backed step towards coerced unionization on a national level that portends to do away with secret ballots at the workplace.
The Pelsoi/Reid Congress are already clamoring for billions in new spending, as if current levels weren't bilious enough. With an Obama presidency, expect every imaginable Democrat constituency (and then some) to have their eager hands out; after all, Barack Obama has presented himself as all things to all people, people with not all that much in common.
Given their Keynesian roots, and looking at the rest of their policy proposals, it could be argued that these guys are not truly free marketeers, but pragmatic corporatists and utilitarians hired to keep Wall Street and tax-eaters happy (these days it seems those two are converging). Furman was groomed by high-powered Democratic pro-business luminaries such as Robert Rubin and Joe Stiglitz, who successfully steered Bill Clinton towards deficit reduction while only marginally increasing top tax rates.
Goolsbee cheer-led subprime lending in his March 2007 NYT column "‘Irresponsible’ Mortgages Have Opened Doors to Many of the Excluded", pooh-poohing predictions of economic bust. This seems to make clear under what kind of paradigm the Obama economic team operates; we know how well Wall Street lenders love the easy credit gravy train. As Justin Raimondo documented, Obama's campaign has received huge support from Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and other top execs of the nation's financial giants, all beneficiaries of the shameful bailout scheme.
Jason Furman himself comes from an entrenched Democratic Party establishment background. Furman's mother, Gail, a Manhattan child psychologist, is the matriarch of the Furman Foundation, a fund that deals cash to Soros-backed groups like the Tides Center, People for the American Way, left-leaning NGOs, and Media Matters, David Brock's left-wing journalist team. Conspiracy nuts will love the fact that the Furmans have bestowed thousands to the Council on Foreign Relations on an annual basis. Furman grants mirror those of Soros and Herb and Marion Sandler, the controversial pair implicated as major players in the subprime lending debacle and Wachovia collapse. Furman herself is an effusive donor to the DNC and Democratic candidates across the country. There is little doubt she'll grab Jason by the ear and have him march her in to the Oval Office so she can have her say with Barack. If momma ain't happy, ain't no one happy.
Those of us who tend to favor markets and choice over state domination hope these centrist advisors will keep Obama from embarking on too many asinine shenanigans if he is elected. They would serve him well to mute the traditional Democrat constituencies, whose scoreboard lights up with every new tax, regulation and Federal bureaucracy. In the 1990s, a reinvigorated GOP Congress helped contain the Clinton Administration's more ambitious targets, and as a result it left a relatively fiscally conservative record. Obama's market-friendly centrists may try to bring a level of reasonableness to a potential Obama administration, but with Democratic trifecta in place, we can only doubt this.
Tom Walls is a travel consultant and translator in Lake Worth, Fla. He has a long history of activism in libertarian organizations, from the National Libertarian Party to the RLC. He supported Ron Paul in the GOP primaries and is voting for Bob Barr in the general election.
Hopefully, they'll leave us with some change
Barack Obama's economic advisors include some youngish Democratic centrists, genuinely bright economists like Austan Goolsbee and Jason Furman. Their pedigrees include Yale, MIT, Harvard and the University of Chicago, an historically free-market bastion. In many instances, these individuals display a surprising sensitivity to recognizing the spontaneous order brought about by millions of actors in the marketplace. However, the few relatively sane positions they hold will likely be drowned out by the converging cavalcade of interest groups that will accompany a potential Obama victory.
In spite of Obama's anti-trade campaign rhetoric, the members of his economic brain trust are friendly to trade and globalization - so much so that the far left has screamed bloody murder, accusing Furman and Goolsbee of having "Wall Street viewpoints" and being "crypto-Bushies." Furman authored a notable paper lauding the salutary effects of Wal-Mart's low prices. Speaking of the net benefits that Wal-Mart's cost savings gave the working poor -- an estimated $263 billion dollars -- Furman declared "there are very few public policies that I’ve advocated in my life that would make as big a difference as that." His estimates of wage suppression ran about $5 billion. "It's just an enormous differential." The Nation's Naomi Klein almost summons the lynch mob, and then concludes their saving grace might just be their paeans to Keynesianism and John Kenneth Galbraith.
Obama's Democratic "Chicago Boys" recognize the value of lower corporate tax rates in principle. Goolsbee determined in a study that taxing Internet transactions could reduce sales by up to a third and stunt e-commerce significantly. Furman has called for lowering tax rates generally and broadening the tax base by limiting special exemptions, calling incentives to invest in tax-favored activities (as opposed to economically productive activities) perverse. In a July 24 interview with NPR, Furman rattled off an astonishing litany of potential budget savings, including ending some subsidies and overpayments to Medicare, banks that make student loans (!), and wealthy farmers.
On the other hand, these things are now de rigueur in any intelligent discussion of political economics today. Only the truly unlettered deny that confiscatory tax rates, complicated tax codes and protectionism are detrimental to a country's economic well-being.
One would hope such bright young minds would find their own voice and not serve as servile executors of viagrafied interest groups, from longshoremen to Lehman Brothers. Will they just go along with the most noxious proposals the Obama team brings to the table? One particularly ominous piece of legislation is the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, a labor-backed step towards coerced unionization on a national level that portends to do away with secret ballots at the workplace.
The Pelsoi/Reid Congress are already clamoring for billions in new spending, as if current levels weren't bilious enough. With an Obama presidency, expect every imaginable Democrat constituency (and then some) to have their eager hands out; after all, Barack Obama has presented himself as all things to all people, people with not all that much in common.
Given their Keynesian roots, and looking at the rest of their policy proposals, it could be argued that these guys are not truly free marketeers, but pragmatic corporatists and utilitarians hired to keep Wall Street and tax-eaters happy (these days it seems those two are converging). Furman was groomed by high-powered Democratic pro-business luminaries such as Robert Rubin and Joe Stiglitz, who successfully steered Bill Clinton towards deficit reduction while only marginally increasing top tax rates.
Goolsbee cheer-led subprime lending in his March 2007 NYT column "‘Irresponsible’ Mortgages Have Opened Doors to Many of the Excluded", pooh-poohing predictions of economic bust. This seems to make clear under what kind of paradigm the Obama economic team operates; we know how well Wall Street lenders love the easy credit gravy train. As Justin Raimondo documented, Obama's campaign has received huge support from Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and other top execs of the nation's financial giants, all beneficiaries of the shameful bailout scheme.
Jason Furman himself comes from an entrenched Democratic Party establishment background. Furman's mother, Gail, a Manhattan child psychologist, is the matriarch of the Furman Foundation, a fund that deals cash to Soros-backed groups like the Tides Center, People for the American Way, left-leaning NGOs, and Media Matters, David Brock's left-wing journalist team. Conspiracy nuts will love the fact that the Furmans have bestowed thousands to the Council on Foreign Relations on an annual basis. Furman grants mirror those of Soros and Herb and Marion Sandler, the controversial pair implicated as major players in the subprime lending debacle and Wachovia collapse. Furman herself is an effusive donor to the DNC and Democratic candidates across the country. There is little doubt she'll grab Jason by the ear and have him march her in to the Oval Office so she can have her say with Barack. If momma ain't happy, ain't no one happy.
Those of us who tend to favor markets and choice over state domination hope these centrist advisors will keep Obama from embarking on too many asinine shenanigans if he is elected. They would serve him well to mute the traditional Democrat constituencies, whose scoreboard lights up with every new tax, regulation and Federal bureaucracy. In the 1990s, a reinvigorated GOP Congress helped contain the Clinton Administration's more ambitious targets, and as a result it left a relatively fiscally conservative record. Obama's market-friendly centrists may try to bring a level of reasonableness to a potential Obama administration, but with Democratic trifecta in place, we can only doubt this.
Tom Walls is a travel consultant and translator in Lake Worth, Fla. He has a long history of activism in libertarian organizations, from the National Libertarian Party to the RLC. He supported Ron Paul in the GOP primaries and is voting for Bob Barr in the general election.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
What is to be done? A message from Phil Blumel
From: Phil Blumel, Palm Beach Ron Paul meetup coordinator
Friends,
We are running in a GOP primary and have to reach GOP voters. It is helpful, and easy, to have sign-waving events on busy street corners -- and they are worth doing! -- but they are not enough, as a minority of the people who pass in cars are NOT going to be voting in the primary.
The most influential primary voters attend local GOP meetings and/or belong to their county Republican Executive Committee and, of course, 100% of the people at such meetings are both interested in the election and will be voting in the primary. We need to be a recognized and respectable part of the Republican Party if we are to win a Republican primary. If we act like a marginal third party, we will get the vote total of a marginal third party.
Here are my specific recommendations in this regard:
1) Register Republican right now if you are not already.
2) Bring change of registration forms to every planning Meetup. We always get new GOP voters in the South Florida Meetups when we do this.
3) Encourage the more presentable Meetup folks (you know what I mean) to join their local GOP clubs and attend meetings and socials wearing a Ron Paul lapel pin and armed with some Ron literature. Go to the meeting, participate, get to know people.
You don't need to be pushy or dogmatic, as this will be resented. Have you ever been active in a charity and some realtor or other salesperson joins trying to network to generate business and it is clear they don't really care about the charity? They do not succeed in generating business that way; this kind of networking only works when the realtor is *genuinely* interested in the goals of the charity. Watch how the Rudy and Mitt folks are working the crowd and learn from them. Because of the pin, discussions about Ron will spring up. But even when they don't, these important primary voters will recognize intraparty support and we will earn respect. The key to networking is to make genuine connections with people, not to harangue or give speeches. It requires attending meetings regularly and establishing real relationships.
4) Join the Republican Liberty Caucus network (www.rlc.org). Ron was chair of the RLC in the 1990s and this is the existing libertarian network in the GOP. This will help you locate fellow travelers in the GOP. You are not alone!
Friends,
We are running in a GOP primary and have to reach GOP voters. It is helpful, and easy, to have sign-waving events on busy street corners -- and they are worth doing! -- but they are not enough, as a minority of the people who pass in cars are NOT going to be voting in the primary.
The most influential primary voters attend local GOP meetings and/or belong to their county Republican Executive Committee and, of course, 100% of the people at such meetings are both interested in the election and will be voting in the primary. We need to be a recognized and respectable part of the Republican Party if we are to win a Republican primary. If we act like a marginal third party, we will get the vote total of a marginal third party.
Here are my specific recommendations in this regard:
1) Register Republican right now if you are not already.
2) Bring change of registration forms to every planning Meetup. We always get new GOP voters in the South Florida Meetups when we do this.
3) Encourage the more presentable Meetup folks (you know what I mean) to join their local GOP clubs and attend meetings and socials wearing a Ron Paul lapel pin and armed with some Ron literature. Go to the meeting, participate, get to know people.
You don't need to be pushy or dogmatic, as this will be resented. Have you ever been active in a charity and some realtor or other salesperson joins trying to network to generate business and it is clear they don't really care about the charity? They do not succeed in generating business that way; this kind of networking only works when the realtor is *genuinely* interested in the goals of the charity. Watch how the Rudy and Mitt folks are working the crowd and learn from them. Because of the pin, discussions about Ron will spring up. But even when they don't, these important primary voters will recognize intraparty support and we will earn respect. The key to networking is to make genuine connections with people, not to harangue or give speeches. It requires attending meetings regularly and establishing real relationships.
4) Join the Republican Liberty Caucus network (www.rlc.org). Ron was chair of the RLC in the 1990s and this is the existing libertarian network in the GOP. This will help you locate fellow travelers in the GOP. You are not alone!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
May 25: Ron Paul on Bill Maher's Real Time on HBO
After his big splash in the GOP debates, Bill Maher has declared Ron Paul "my new hero." Ron Paul will be on Maher's show once again on Friday, May 25, this time with libertarian humorist P.J. O'Rourke and actor Ben Affleck.
On Ron's first appearance on Maher's show, Maher was somewhat dismissive of him and even disrespectful. Apparently he has changed his opinion, and is offering him as an example for other politicians to follow (click here to see Maher haranguing establishment sop Chris Dodd while throwing Ron's name out there).
On Ron's first appearance on Maher's show, Maher was somewhat dismissive of him and even disrespectful. Apparently he has changed his opinion, and is offering him as an example for other politicians to follow (click here to see Maher haranguing establishment sop Chris Dodd while throwing Ron's name out there).
Thursday, May 10, 2007
2nd GOP Presidential Debate: Tuesday, May 15 - 9:00 PM EST
From the SC GOP website:
The 2007 First-In-The-South Republican Party Presidential Candidates Debate will be televised live by FOX News Channel at 9:00 PM from the University of South Carolina’s Koger Center for the Arts on Tuesday, May 15, 2007. FOX News Channel Washington Managing Editor Brit Hume will moderate the debate and FOX News Sunday Anchor Chris Wallace and White House Correspondent Wendell Goler will ask questions of the candidates.
You can submit questions here:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271356,00.html
The 2007 First-In-The-South Republican Party Presidential Candidates Debate will be televised live by FOX News Channel at 9:00 PM from the University of South Carolina’s Koger Center for the Arts on Tuesday, May 15, 2007. FOX News Channel Washington Managing Editor Brit Hume will moderate the debate and FOX News Sunday Anchor Chris Wallace and White House Correspondent Wendell Goler will ask questions of the candidates.
You can submit questions here:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271356,00.html
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