Is Obama the Bizarro Clinton?

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Mr. Pethokoukis, I really enjoy reading your blog and seeing you on CNBC as you regularly have interesting points to add to the overall political economic discussion (many of which I agree with). That said, this post surprises me on how misleading it is. The entire notion that government and, by extension, the particular adminstration in control of the state at any one time can somehow be responsible for creating the wealth that figures into the overall GDP statistics is incredibly wrongheaded. The only way the government can help spur growth is by rolling back the degree of intervention embedded within the market economy. But that still does not mean it follows that the government "created" any of the subsequent economic growth.
I like to share with you one of my favorite quotes from Ludwig von Mises' short book titled, A Critique of Interventionism.
"Government cannot create anything; its orders cannot even evict anything from the world of reality, but they can evict from the world of the permissible. Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer."
It's the concept found in that short quote--that government can never be a source of wealth creation--that is unfortunately missing from any discussions of our current political economy.

Ryan S. of OH 7:35PM August 04, 2008

I'm pretty sure that no matter who gets elected, we'll have $500 billion deficits until the Federal Reserve Act is repealed and we can hold someone in the Fed accountable

anonymous of SC 3:47PM August 04, 2008

"Corrupt Republicans have created a huge mess over the last 8 years and the challenges for Barack Obama are similar to the mess left by the Republican Hoover Administration during the great depression of the 1930's. President Barack Obama will be surrounded by a smart team similar to the 1990's that will guide our country back to prosperity."
...that's not exactly a good analogy. Read "The Forgotten Man". Most economists now say that Roosevelt's policies prolonged the Great Depression insteadof shortening it.

Chris of AZ 2:38PM August 04, 2008

Well, I guess that the Clinton years were the longest period of economic expansion...if you're going to give him the credit of economic expansion under the Bush years.
It's surprising that so many people working for Obama who are astute economic thinkers suddenly turn off the thinking cap for the sake of politics.

Chris of AZ 2:36PM August 04, 2008

Corrupt Republicans have created a huge mess over the last 8 years and the challenges for Barack Obama are similar to the mess left by the Republican Hoover Administration during the great depression of the 1930's. President Barack Obama will be surrounded by a smart team similar to the 1990's that will guide our country back to prosperity.
John McCain is confused, showing signs of dementia and is mindlessly spouting dirty politics talking points from corrupt Republicans. Another four years of Bush would totally destroy our country and this is what the American people would get with McCain. For the sake of our country, we must make sure that Barack Obama is elected President.

Fox7777 of WA 2:36PM August 04, 2008

What is TRULY BIZARRO is that the only candidates the "parties" can come up with are Obama and McCain. The "parties" don't stand for anything (ie there is no "Platform" anymore)except,deceit, debauchery, dishonesty, do-nothing, let's fool the public some more etc. Since Clinton, who except for his supreme foolishness with monica, was a terrific President, respected thru the world, this country has been so politically bankrupt it is TRULY scary!!! The Congress is the sorriest excuse for those who supposedly represent the people ever, and we have had some truly sorry ones in the past! AND HERE WE HAD HOPED THAT THEY WOULD GET THE MESSAGE AFTER THE LAST ELECTION. Either they are stupid, or they just don't care as long as they get theirs. (or both!!??) Guess!?! I love my country and all it stands for, but i hate the people that represent it to the rest of the world because "we" come off looking like rich, haughty, spoiled, smug bullies! we are in a DEPRESSION people that rule, and have been for 7 years. The ONLY difference between now and l929 is CREDIT!!! So many of OUR OWN are fighting all over the world, with pay and equipment that would shame the Boy Scouts,defending those of us at home that are hungry, sick and unable to get good care, or a job,skilled or not - forget benefits, uneducated, thrown away with the jobs, so the fat cats can live well. Sorry, i digress. Bush, Obama, McCain - bizarro? scary? pathetic?
Obama's "advisors" are scarrier than Bush's and THAT IS GOING SOME! None of them know their butts from their elbows, but they spew their garbage anyway, and those idiots listen!! Obama's got 2 that he's "proud to listen to". That other "reverend" what's his name, is pretty scarry too. At least McCain's "advisors" are smart enough to stay behind the scenes.
EXCELLENT ARTICLE/QUESTION Mr. Pethokoukis. Keep up the good work. Any wonder I really do not want to vote this time? I was tired of voting for the "lesser of 2 evils" - this time, there really is no choice - in my humble opinion. Watch out Congress - I WILL vote, like it or not.

disgusted of NY 2:23PM August 04, 2008

The economic growth in the 1990's was driven by two one-time events: the Y2K date computer fix and the initial commericialization of the Internet.
The Y2K computer fix encouraged computer and software companies to provide solutions to this problem. The Internet buildout featured telecom companies buying network routers from the likes of Cisco and Juniper, PC's from Dell, HP and others, Ebay, Yahoo, Doubleclick, etc.
These events overcame the economic drag of the tax increases.

Liberty Lover of NY 2:19PM August 04, 2008

senator obama hardly had much experence as a senator,now people think he can run a country.wake up america obama has a great gift of words with outany substance.what this country needs is a man that has real knowledge of our country like JOHN McCAIN
.

milton kessler of NY 1:54PM August 04, 2008