I am, of course, grateful for all you readers. But I’m also glad I don’t take investment advice from Glenn Beck or Ron Paul. Dave Weigel writes that the poor saps who bought up gold are watching their investment go down the drain. “Gold reached an all time high price of $1911 per ounce on August 23, 2011, during the debt limit crisis. By election day 2012, gold had fallen to $1777 per ounce. That amount of gold sells, today, for just $1178.”
We were supposed to buy gold so we would be protected when President Obama tanked the economy. Except the economy didn’t tank, and the stock market is soaring. See also Krugman. Beck still has a banner ad for Goldline on his website, I notice.
Meanwhile, we see once again that being a supply-side economist means you’ll never say you’re sorry. No matter what.
Kansas very stupidly re-elected Gov. Sam Brownback in spite of his record, and on December 1 some schmuck named Rex Sinquefield, writing for Forbes, gushed,
In the two years since Kansas’ tax-reform measures went into effect, the promises of Governor Sam Brownback’s administration are becoming a reality. I challenge tax-and-spend naysayers to dispute the following facts:
- 8,400 seasonally adjusted non-farm jobs have been added since September;
- Workers saw their earnings grow by 3.3 percent in a year; and
- The Sunflower State’s unemployment rate is now 4.4 percent, down from 5.2 percent a year ago.
Note the name Rex Sinquefield. Remember to not take investment advice from him, either. The Kansas City Star reported on December 19:
The new Kansas jobs numbers were released Friday morning, bringing horrible news to state taxpayers and Gov. Sam Brownback.
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the total number of nonfarm jobs in Kansas fell by 4,100 in November.
Kansas’ disturbing experience was at odds with how much of the rest of the country did. A total of 37 other states gained in employment in November, while only 13 others, including Kansas, dropped.
What Sinquefield failed to mention was that his numbers came from a brief hiring blip in October. In fact, the economy of Kansas is in even worse shape than was known on election day. Brownback is proposing even more draconian budget cuts and wants to raid pension money to make up the difference.
The supply-siders are struggling to put lipstick on the Kansas pig, saying that Brownback’s mistake was that he did too much too soon. All that supply-siding has to be more gradual. Yeah, that’s it.
So, be grateful you are not Sam Brownback.
“So, be grateful you are not Sam Brownback.”
Why?
The man’s got a terrific gig going for himself!
He’s a wealthy man in a position of power.
HE has people who cook and clean for him.
HE has people who drive him around.
HE can fly wherever he wants to – for free, usually.
HE gets his medical bills paid for.
HIS job is secure for this next 4 years.
HE’LL get paid.
HIS pension is secure.
He was just reelected, so he has another 4 years of ripping off the people in his state to cover-up his, and his political and economic philosophy’s, fuster-cluck’s.
Jayzoos, the rest of us should be in his “terrible” position!!!!
Brownback is funny looking. So I wouldn’t want to be him, anyway.
This also makes me grateful to live in the socialist dystopia of California. You New Yorkers must feel the same way. It’s not that everything is going great, but we’re at least allowed to consider sensible policies.
I have a friend who is pretty right-leaning and takes a stock newsletter that plays him like a fiddle. I have a feeling the advice is decent, when looking at the returns, but the reasons they give for each pick is total nonsense intended to elicit a typical overly emotional response from the reader.
As for Brownback – could you really live that way? I’m happy being what I am; I would be miserable knowing I made my fortune and fame by harming other people. I suspect many/most lefties are at least similar.
I was looking at a couple of recent articles and the comments section (I always go straight for the letters to the editor). The right wing site was all vitriol and fearmongering, the leftist site was all concern and understanding. Both sets of comments were totally against what the author had said… There is a fundamental difference between right and left.
Maha: All of us readers are grateful for you.
I didn’t waste my money on investing in gold..I was smart and bought survival seeds!
I second paradoctor’s comment.
Under Reagan, the national debt went from 700 billion to almost 3 trillion. The Reagan tax cuts were supposed to generate a boom so mammoth that the revenue from the larger economy would replace the taxes lost in the initial stimulative cuts.
It never has worked that way. Increasing the national debt fourfold in the Reagan years proves that it’s voodoo economics. I haven’t seen an economic projection, but if gas prices stay low – that will be a huge stimulus because for so many people living on the edge, the money they don’t spend on gas WILL be spent – but spent elsewhere. The aggregate amount may be a big kick in the economy from the bottom up. Trickle-down doesn’t work – but anytime you infuse the bottom with cash, it gets spent. Spending, not tax cuts, drives job creation because rising consumption forces hiring to meet consumer demand.
Economic news is good. See Ed Kilgore –
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_12/crickets053481.php
and if, (I did say ‘if’) the economy really rebounds in the next two years for the middle class, the GOP is going to have a hard time in the next election cycle. Maybe – just maybe – we are going to get the ‘stimulus’ package courtesy of an economic war between OPEC and the fracking industry. The eco-equivalent of the sci-fi movie ‘Alien vs Predator’. Two rival monster groups who hate liberals and democracy may well crush any chance the GOP has in 2016. Go figure.
I am thankful NY banned fracking, citing public health. When the lawsuits start flooding in, in states that allow fracking, and gas executives AND the individual legislators who voted to frack are facing huge civil suits, they will not be able to claim they weren’t warned.
Meanwhile, we see once again that being a supply-side economist means you’ll never say you’re sorry. No matter what.
Because they are not judged on their predictive accuracy, but on how well they utilize their perceived authority to propagandize the ideology. Like a religion, the important thing is that everyone Believes the same things; actually measuring results is insolence.
Taking investment advice from Glenn Beck, Larry Kudlow and other right-wing gasbags is a sure path to getting not what you want but what you deserve.