Thursday, September 18, 2008

The Spectacular Failure of "Conservative" Economic Policies

It is awe inspiring to see McCain scrambling to modify his economic message in response to the market collapse which was caused, in large part, by the very policies that he champions. His response is a bizarre kind of schizophrenia characterized by touting "conservative" economic policies while railing against the "greed" of Wall Street, which he endorsed deregulating.

I don't think you can effect real change to the behavior of Wall Street by calling them names. But McCain has already said that he doesn't understand economics "as well as I should".



Why then does he consider himself capable of setting policy? Well, I guess because his primary economic advisor is Phil Gramm, a veritable wizard who claims that america is in a "mental reccession" and that we've become "a nation of whiners".

So let me get this straight: when financial institutions are doing well, there should be no government oversight, and limited taxation, but when financial institutions fail due to lack of regulation, there should be massive government bailouts funded by taxpayers?

No comments: