The Rude Pundit - In Brief: John McCain Hates/Hearts Economists

[meegbear]

Okay, follow this. It's got a fun little pay off:

So John McCain proposes a gas tax holiday and economists almost universally say it's a stupid idea. In June, McCain, being a reasonable man, chooses to mock the economists: "If you want to call it a gimmick, fine. You know the economists? They’re the same ones that didn’t predict this housing crisis we’re now in." Ha-ha. Stupid economists. What do they know?

Now McCain has put forth a great and mighty economic plan. Did it yesterday, less than a month after dissing the poindexters. And his campaign has released a letter from, well, who else? Economists who support it. Oodles of them. Guess they know a lot about economics, eh?

Here's the final step: the Rude Pundit chose one of the names at relatively random. University of Chicago's Gary Becker, who does a blog on, you know, economics, with Richard Posner. And here's that promised pay off: back in December 2007, Becker says, "The vast majority of economists, including me, were surprised by the extent of the subprime mortgage crisis."

So, to conclude: for John McCain, economists who didn't predict the mortgage crisis don't know what they're talking about when it comes to a gas tax holiday, but when it comes to his entire economic plan, they're a-ok. What fun.

Does that qualify as straight talk?

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[Warpy]

1. If they run that clown (by no means a sure thing at this point)

all the GOPs are going to have to be treated for whiplash before the election.

Of course, this is a group for whom "god did it" is an answer to every seeming contradiction in the world, so maybe they'll just deify their doddering candidate and be done with it.

[Romulox]

2. Just FYI: "Economics" is not a science (though economists desperately want to pretend it is...)

Another thing: Richard Posner is a right-wing ideologue, and the University of Chicago is infamous for its right-wing economic ideology.

There are no authoritative voices in economics, because to be generous, economics is a social-science at very best.

[AdHocSolver]

3. Economics is a group of definitions supplemented by a theoretical framework designed to...

promote and protect the corporate ruling class. Its purpose is not to explain, but to obfuscate how the wealthy elite use the corporations, the media, and governments to enslave populations in order to maintain and increase their wealth and power.

You don't need to understand economics to figure out that if you remove a tax on gas, the oil companies, since there are no regulations to prevent them, will simply raise the price by the same amount and increase their profits.

There is NO "invisible hand" that forces the corporations to do anything either against their own interests or for the public good. They can do anything they want no matter what the rest of us want. They are all-powerful because there is no government watchdog regulating their activities.

The corporate wealthy have taken over the government COMPLETELY and are running riot over the planet. This happened before in the 1920's leading to the Great Depression of the 1930's.

Then, and only then, after the economy collapsed, did people finally wake up and support Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies of corporate regulation and economic controls.

Talk about "supply and demand", "peak oil", "tax cuts", "global climate change", "competition", and so no is merely empty verbiage by powerless people who believe that incantation of these magic words will somehow save them and the planet from impending disaster.

It seems apparent that, as in the 1930's, nothing will be done to stave off serious trouble until after the U.S. economy collapses, and only then if we are fortunate enough to have a leadership which will wrest control from the corporate elite.