Prof. Peter Morici opened his mouth and spoke stupid

[ensho]

on Wash. Journal this a.m. he is a prof at the U. of Md.

he said our economy would still be bad even if we hadn't invaded Iraq and spent mountains of money. what? what!

he also said we shouldn't do cap and trade because China isn't doing cap and trade. what nonsense.

China has acknowledge their air problem and are beginning to do something about it. maybe not giant steps but steps nevertheless.

I turned him off and went to the grocery.

I wouldn't want my kid to be in one of his classes.

[Warpy]

1. He's right about Stupid's war not being the cause of the economic problems

What caused the five trillion dollar debt during Stupid's reign wasn't the war or even a flat stock market, it was a combination of ruinous tax cuts on fat cats plus the steady loss of jobs--and tax revenue--from the bottom. It was a double whammy, cutting revenues from the top while choking them off at the bottom.

What the Republicans have done is choke off the consumer marketplace by exporting the jobs that paid the wages that sustained it. By driving interest rates down and keeping the country awash in easy credit they were able to stall the inevitable collapse by propping the whole economy up on massive debt at all levels. Since that can go on only for a limited time, the collapse was inevitable.

He's also right, to a point, on the necessity for China to enter the cap and trade agreement for it to work properly. They're still putting 2 or 3 coal fired electrical plants on line a week but they're just beginning to realize the pollution those things cause is a real problem. In addition, most Chinese heat and cook using blocks of compressed coal dust, an economical but incredibly filthy source of heat. They are pouring efforts into research on alternatives, but those efforts will take years and possibly decades to come to fruition. In the short term, they will be the most massive polluters on the planet. Without their participation in cap and trade, there will be no offsets.

However, he's wrong in saying we shouldn't do it at all. That's light switch thinking and unworthy of any sort of academic.

I think his problem this morning was trying to compress everything into sound bites for morons. Either that or he was right for all the wrong reasons.

[donco6]

2. +1

You're right.

[ensho]

3. you can't be serious that all that money still pouring into Iraq hasn't

any effect on our economy. how can you possibly discount that?

[Warpy]

5. I didn't say it had no effect

I agreed with him that it didn't cause the economic crash all by itself, that it would have been insufficient to do so.

[European Socialist]

4. I can't stand that smirking asswipe--and that dreamy Peggy Noonan either.