centralized planning

Q: Did the New Deal end or extend the Great Depression?

A:  Extend.

That’s the conclusion of Dr. Lee Ohanian, Professor of Economics at UCLA, as explained in his video Did FRD End or Extend the Depression?

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7KYn5xCyCI&feature=player_embedded]

The primary reason cited by the Professor is artificial increases in prices and wages driven by federal policy, specifically the National Industrial Recovery Act. (more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago

While pondering the wisdom of those who can prevent the next financial crisis…

…check out the wisdom of politicians and regulators evidenced before the last crisis.

(cross-posted from my other blog, Outrun Change.)

Read The Housing Bubble and the Limits of Human Knowledge , by Alex Pollock.

The fallacy in play today is that the regulators who didn’t see our current financial crisis coming (or helped facilitate it) are now wise & bright enough that they will be able to detect any future crisis far enough in advance to prevent them. It’s quite obvious that is the operating concept driving laws and regulations for several years now.

John Cochrane makes this point in his article Limited clairvoyance: (more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago

We need more capitalism. Not less.

That’s the title of an article from AgainstCronyCapitalism.org – We Need More Capitalism, Not Less. More Freedom. Not Less.

From the article:

Never forget, the financial crisis which we are suffering through is not the creation of capitalism. It is not the creation of a free market. It isn’t because businessmen were too free in their dealings that everything fell apart the way it did.

The financial crisis was and is a failure of central planning.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Another explanation of Quantitative Easing and other performance enhancing drugs

(cross-post from my other blog, Outrun Change.)

Here’s the on-air confessional interview as it should have happened. Or perhaps it is an animated educational cartoon. You can decide for yourself:

Bernanke to Oprah:  ‘I’ve Been Doping for Years’.

This cartoon gives a superb explanation in 12 minutes of a major factor about how we got into our current economic mess.

The format is an imaginary interview with the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke, as he confesses to long-term doping of the economy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=orh64vypKwU]

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

You don’t want to cite Joseph and the years of abundance as an argument for central planning. It’s actually an example of coercive government power leading to slavery of the people.

An article in the Times of Israel, “The road to Egypt: job creators in the Ancient World”, has the subtitle Joseph’s rise to power is no blueprint for good government but rather a profoundly cautionary tale.

I’ve not studied the issues mentioned in the article, but want to put up a post as a marker for future reference.  I’ll try to come back to these ideas, but in case that doesn’t happen, or it is a long time until I do, the discussion will be here.

As a Christian, I don’t spend much time in the Torah. Okay, make that zero time.

Having spent a bit of study effort in the book of Genesis, I am familiar with the story of how Joseph used his God-provided experiences and abilities to care for his family.

Imagine my surprise to learn that during the famine years Joseph sold wheat in exchange for cattle and other livestock. When grain ran out a year later and people needed more food, they sold their land to Joseph, i.e. the government. When the famine ended, they had neither land to raise grain nor livestock to produce cash or food.  They were slaves. They knowingly went into slavery.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago