Yuval Levin joins today’s podcast, a very special episode in which we delve deeply into a revelatory conversation between the New York Times’s Ezra Klein and leading liberal economist Larry Summers—in which Klein reveals his horrified discomfort at the fact that many of the policies he thought were going to save America are instead driving us into an economic ditch. Give a listen.

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  1. OwnedByDogs Lincoln
    OwnedByDogs
    @JuliaBlaschke

    Not everyone wants nice things and to help people. Politicians mostly just want votes in the short term for the next election and hang the consequences. I’m a Republican and believe that there are some Republicans that do this and that MOST if not all Democrats do this.

     

    I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

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  2. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    OwnedByDogs (View Comment):

    Not everyone wants nice things and to help people. Politicians mostly just want votes in the short term for the next election and hang the consequences. I’m a Republican and believe that there are some Republicans that do this and that MOST if not all Democrats do this.

    http://financialrepressionauthority.com/2017/07/26/the-roundtable-insight-george-bragues-on-how-the-financial-markets-are-influenced-by-politics/

     

     

     

     

     

     

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  3. Boney Cole Member
    Boney Cole
    @BoneyCole

    OwnedByDogs (View Comment):

    Not everyone wants nice things and to help people. Politicians mostly just want votes in the short term for the next election and hang the consequences. I’m a Republican and believe that there are some Republicans that do this and that MOST if not all Democrats do this.

     

    I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

    Thomas Jefferson

     

    Eternal wisdom, which, generally speaking, we are aware of, but are unable to practice.    I guess we mostly hope that some miracle will occur, and we will be spared the consequences this time.  The shale revolution could have been such a miracle, but the idiocies of the climate movement have negated it.   

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  4. Theodoric of Freiberg Inactive
    Theodoric of Freiberg
    @TheodoricofFreiberg

    Excellent podcast. Ezra Klein typifies progressive economic thinking—well intentioned, pie-in-the-sky nonsense that harms those they say they’re trying to help and hurts everyone else in the process.

    It also occurred to me during the discussion that Biden may very well be the reverse Reagan. Reagan and Volker squeezed out inflation in the first two years which created a huge landslide victory in 1984. The Fed may be forced to tighten the money supply during Biden’s second two years, producing a huge defeat in 2024.

    Another thought: The 2008 meltdown wasn’t a market failure. It was the direct result of government policies designed to get more people into home ownership. Remember W’s “ownership society?” So much for compassionate conservatism.

    Conservatism is compassionate because it acknowledges reality.

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  5. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Theodoric of Freiberg (View Comment):
    It also occurred to me during the discussion that Biden may very well be the reverse Reagan. Reagan and Volker squeezed out inflation in the first two years which created a huge landslide victory in 1984. The Fed may be forced to tighten the money supply during Biden’s second two years, producing a huge defeat in 2024.

    The debt to GDP is insanely higher now, too. It won’t produce a big boom and it will likely break the government if they aren’t careful. Two points on the five year and every single Western government goes broke.

    Theodoric of Freiberg (View Comment):
    Another thought: The 2008 meltdown wasn’t a market failure. It was the direct result of government policies designed to get more people into home ownership. Remember W’s “ownership society?” So much for compassionate conservatism.

    I was talking about this the other day with somebody who is really smart. The ownership society was a bunch of advertisements to get poor people to participate in the housing asset bubble with various stupid government ideas. It was signed by 43 with ACORN aT the signing ceremony.

    Greenspan blew bubbles and nobody gets it.

    Conservatism is hopeless without better Fed regulation and financial regulation. Inflationism is madness.

    Little known fact: the government can’t get enough tax money unless the Fed creates constant CPI or asset inflation.

    • #5
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