Can President Obama’s Policies Heal the US Economy?
Guest post from Frank Shostak.
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In his interview with the New York Times on May 3, 2009, President Obama said,
I know how to ask good questions of my doctor. But ultimately, he’s the guy with the medical degree. So, if he tells me, you know what, you’ve got such-and-such and you need to take such-and-such, I don’t go around arguing with him or go online to see if I can find a better opinion than his.
We suspect that President Obama has adopted the same approach with respect to managing the US economy. In fact, in the same interview he said that he is very much influenced by the ideas of Joseph Stiglitz, Larry Summers, and Paul Volcker.
During the interview he also expressed his admiration for Robert Reich and Paul Krugman. Although he didn’t say it, we suggest that the US president is also greatly influenced by the ideas of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
All these famous personalities derive their way of thinking from the writings of John Maynard Keynes and endorse heavy government involvement in the economy.
Smuggle me down under
People smuggling is quite distinct from people trafficking. The former involves treating people as clients who want to move illegally across a national border. The latter is about slavery. With that distinction out of the way what is the current market price for the service of being smuggled into Australia?
I don’t actually know the answer. However the following suggests an answer:-
http://www.friends-partners.org/lists/stop-traffic/1999/0532.html
most anecdotal evidence placed the cost of being smuggled to Australia at between $30,000 and $50,000.
In addition to any direct monetary cost there is also some risk of death and legal repercussions associated with being smuggled into Australia. Presumably people would pay a higher fee to be smugged down under without those extra risks. Also the fee suggested in the quote above is about ten years out of date.
What would happen to the smuggling business if the government let anybody into the country and made them permenant residents for a flat entry fee of $50,000? Would the illegal arrivals mostly disappear? How many immigrants would we get each year? How much revenue would it raise? Would it entail greater procedural fairness than the current system?
The government & the media
Newspapers are in trouble. With the internet now offering fast accurate information about the world there are fewer reasons for people to buy a broadsheet. And so sales are down, advertising is down, profits are down and the newspaper industry is shrinking.
What should the government do? Well, according to some on the left they should do what they should always do — spend more money. However, as France has discovered, despite a highly subsidised newspaper industry… you can’t force people to read newspapers.
Reason TV takes up the issue…
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