Recession because of liberal economic policies

[ilikeboobs]

Here in MN our state economist has come out and said that the state is officially in a recession. That got me thinking - what could have caused it?

As far as I can see, the recession (both in MN and coming soon the the USA) is a direct results of liberal economic policies.

The free market is being beat to death by big government. Taxes are so punitive here in MN that businesses are leaving. Our energy policy says "raise the price of energy to get people out of their cars" - that crimps economic activity. At the federal level we've inflated the dollar to the point of being worthless. Gold is skyrocketing, and the cost of imports is going way up.

Whether it's easy money from the federal reserve, punishing oil companies for succeeding, subsidizing ethanol which prices food out of the hands of more and more americans, spending our surpluses....

It's all a direct cause of our economic woes. And they're all liberal policies.

Discuss, monkeys!

 

[jpn of Seattle]

Yeah, it couldn't possibly simply be the business cycle rearing its head, as it always seems to do every six or seven years or so.

Nope, it's gotta be dem damn librels again!

http://www.nber.org/cycles.html/

 

[ilikeboobs]

Yeah, it couldn't possibly simply be the business cycle rearing its head, as it always seems to do every six or seven years or so.

Nope, it's gotta be dem damn librels again!

http://www.nber.org/cycles.html/

Possibly. But I think I should emphasize that I believe the cause of the downturn is liberal economic policies. This doesn't mean that only liberals are to blame. Republicans are, and have been, pushing these liberal policies, too. Has nothing to do with what party you're in...

 

[Izz]

..then why phrase it the way you did?
"It's all a direct cause of our economic woes. And they're all liberal policies"

No matter how you hash it, the word 'economic' isn't in that last sentence. It just sounds like a direct attack.

As for the economy, my state's planning for recession too. We've been barreling towards it for years, regardless of who is in charge. Moving all your companies to foreign ports so they don't have to pay taxes will do that to a nation.

 

[vyo476]

As for the economy, my state's planning for recession too. We've been barreling towards it for years, regardless of who is in charge. Moving all your companies to foreign ports so they don't have to pay taxes will do that to a nation.

Ah, well, you're from New Hampshire, and let's face it - no one cares about New Hampshire.

 

[jpn of Seattle]

Possibly. But I think I should emphasize that I believe the cause of the downturn is liberal economic policies. This doesn't mean that only liberals are to blame. Republicans are, and have been, pushing these liberal policies, too. Has nothing to do with what party you're in...

Fair enough. Which policies, exactly, do you refer to?

To make sense, these policies would have had to have been enacted within the last several years to be causing our current economic difficulties, I assume.

 

[jpn of Seattle]

Moving all your companies to foreign ports so they don't have to pay taxes will do that to a nation.

The government is forcing the companies to foreign ports? Or are the corporations choosing to do that of their own accord? (Which would be what small government, free enterprise would allow, of course.)

Are you saying that corporate taxes are too high? But that would not be true:

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Corporates taxes have dropped significantly in recent decades.
There are two strange facts about corporate taxes. Everyone from Mr. Rangel on the left to Fred Thompson on the right is saying that high corporate taxes are hurting American companies. But the effective corporate tax rate isn’t any higher than it has been on average over the last 25 years, and it’s far lower than it was in the 1960s and ’70s.“ A dirty little secret is that the corporate income tax used to raise a fair amount of revenue,” says Richard Clarida, a Columbia University economist and former Treasury Department official under Mr. Bush. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/business/31leonhardt.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
==================================================

 

[9sublime]

I'll tell you why the markets are doing badly, and its not because of 'liberals' (a nice term as vague as terrorists).

It's because of credit. Banks have been giving credit to whoever wants it, whenever they want it. And now they are starting to want it back, and theres a credit crunch. Go look it up.

 

[jpn of Seattle]

Fair enough. Which policies, exactly, do you refer to?

To make sense, these policies would have had to have been enacted within the last several years to be causing our current economic difficulties, I assume.

Hmmm. No response yet. It's been several days, but nothing.

I wonder why?

 

[curefiend]

Just to let you know for future reference....a liberal economic design is indeed a free unregulated market...

 

[9sublime]

No, theres two types of 'liberalism'.

Letting people do what they want, or being a nanny and making sure everyone does what they want under plenty of unneccessary rules and regulations.

 

[PLC1]

I'll tell you why the markets are doing badly, and its not because of 'liberals' (a nice term as vague as terrorists).

It's because of credit. Banks have been giving credit to whoever wants it, whenever they want it. And now they are starting to want it back, and theres a credit crunch. Go look it up.

That is one of the main reasons. Add to that the flight of manufacturing jobs overseas, the trade imbalance, and government overspending, and you have a sure fire formula for a recession.

 

[Bunz]

The notion that it is liberal policies that is the cause of the fast approaching recession is a bit short sighted. A credit crunch as mentioned before is surely coming back to bite the financial sector.
Another few factors come directly actually based on neo-con and not liberal policies of the current situation we find ourselves in which energy costs, insurance costs, and the devaluation of the dollar are eroding the core of our economy.
Years of unchecked spending and the wholesale movement of US Treasury bonds to China and Saudi Arabia. A very expensive war, and other foreign policy decisions that have inflated the cost of a barrel of crude oil from less than $20 a decade ago, to nearly 5x the cost today.

 

[Izz]

The government is forcing the companies to foreign ports? Or are the corporations choosing to do that of their own accord? (Which would be what small government, free enterprise would allow, of course.)

Are you saying that corporate taxes are too high? But that would not be true:

==================================================
Corporates taxes have dropped significantly in recent decades.
There are two strange facts about corporate taxes. Everyone from Mr. Rangel on the left to Fred Thompson on the right is saying that high corporate taxes are hurting American companies. But the effective corporate tax rate isn’t any higher than it has been on average over the last 25 years, and it’s far lower than it was in the 1960s and ’70s.“ A dirty little secret is that the corporate income tax used to raise a fair amount of revenue,” says Richard Clarida, a Columbia University economist and former Treasury Department official under Mr. Bush. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/business/31leonhardt.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
==================================================

nonono, I'm not saying that they're too high, I'm saying that letting corperations get away with moving overseas to dodge taxes and get cheap labor has a large part to play in the crappy economy. Which could be granted to the whole laissez-faire thing, but that isn't exactly a liberal policy. In fact I'd call it a conservative one.

 

[vyo476]

nonono, I'm not saying that they're too high, I'm saying that letting corperations get away with moving overseas to dodge taxes and get cheap labor has a large part to play in the crappy economy. Which could be granted to the whole laissez-faire thing, but that isn't exactly a liberal policy. In fact I'd call it a conservative one.

First of all, laissez-faire is a totally free-market system; in other words, laissez-faire capitalism would mean no taxes for business and no laws regarding minimum wage, which would mean that businesses wouldn't want to move overseas in the first place. The policies that drive businesses overseas are distinctly anti-laissez faire.

Second of all, do you intend to "force" businesses to stay here in America? How would you accomplish this? Tariffs on foreign-produced goods would be the only non-overt way way to do so, but such policies would be wildly unpopular with consumers as all the tariffs would do is raise prices on the things they want to buy. And if you start talking about more overt ways of forcing businesses to stay in America, you'll be heading towards a fascistic economic system (and I'm not kidding).