Sunday, September 11, 2011

"War: The Fiscal Stimulus of Last Resort"

Ellen Brown at Nation of Change:
Protesters have been trying to stop the military juggernaut ever since the end of World War II, yet the war machine is more powerful and influential than ever. Why? The veiled powers pulling the strings no doubt have their own dark agenda, but why has our much-trumpeted system of political democracy not been able to stop them?

The answer may involve our individualistic, laissez-faire brand of capitalism, which forbids the government to compete with private business except in cases of “national emergency.” The problem is that private business needs the government to get money into people’s pockets and stimulate demand. The process has to start somewhere, and government has the tools to do it. But in our culture, any hint of “socialism” is anathema. The result has been a state of “national emergency” has had to be declared virtually all of the time, just to get the government’s money into the economy.
If Rick Perry really believes that Keynesian is dead and government spending doesn't provide a stimulus, I wonder how he would feel about the US cutting defense spending by pulling all its military bases, personnel, and defense contracts out of Texas.

5 comments:

charlesH said...

If I am out of work I can borrow to continue spending (be like Greece) or I can develop that oil well in the backyard.

"Obama energy policy raises costs, limits jobs"

"For decades, political commentators have been lamenting America's lack of an energy policy. That's no longer true. Under Barack Obama, the U.S. has adopted a very clear energy policy: obstruct and even vilify the coal, oil and natural gas industries while lavishing subsidies on unreliable and expensive sources like solar, biofuels and wind energy.

The events of the past few weeks provide plenty of examples. The most recent: the bankruptcy of solar-panel-maker Solyndra, which despite a $527 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy could not compete with overseas producers."

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-09/opinion/opinion_bryce-obama-energy-jobs_1_energy-policy-biofuels-oil-companies?_s=PM:OPINION

riverat said...

nder Barack Obama, the U.S. has adopted a very clear energy policy: obstruct and even vilify the coal, oil and natural gas industries

And yet domestic production of petroleum is higher under Obama than it ever was under (GW) Bush.

charlesH said...

"And yet domestic production of petroleum is higher under Obama than it ever was under (GW) Bush."

It could be much higher if Obama was not dragging his feet.

Oil prices have doubled under Obama. That price signal has resulted in more production. But will still import half of our oil use. We could reduce imports and provide many more jobs if the Obama admin was pushing to domestic FF production.

charlesH said...

Canada's Oil Sands Are a Jobs Gusher

"For all its soaring rhetoric, President Obama's "jobs speech" last week didn't demonstrate a lick of insight into why economies grow or how wealth is created. It was merely trademark Obamanomics: using government diktat to move money that's over here, over there."

"On the regulatory front the picture is even gloomier. Much of America's vast untapped energy potential lies dormant because Mr. Obama's regulatory watchdogs have spent the past three years throwing sand in the gears of the permitting process for exploration and exploitation on federal lands. Separately, TransCanada has been trying since September 2008 to get a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf Coast. The Environmental Protection Agency has so far blocked it."

"One explanation for Canada's more robust growth is its strong commitment to energy, which has become more valuable in U.S. dollar terms under Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's inflationary policies. Alberta is now producing two million barrels per day but expects that number will grow to four to five million within a decade."

"Alberta's oil and gas industry supports more than 271,000 direct jobs and hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs in sectors such as construction, manufacturing and financial services. The province has an unemployment rate of 5.6%. There are also some 960 American companies involved in Alberta energy, supplying equipment and technology, among other things. As an example, Mr. Liepert says, "dozens of Caterpillar tractors, made in Illinois and Michigan and costing $5 million a piece" work the oil sands. He says the region is on track to create more than 400,000 direct American jobs by 2035. The Bakken region of North Dakota, where private land ownership gives drillers relief from federal obstructionism, shares a similar, if smaller, story. Oil production there is booming, and North Dakota unemployment is 3.3%."

charlesH said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904836104576560933917369412.html