Behind the "Stimulus" Package There's a Big Time March Toward Socialism

There's a lot to the current "stimulus" package that mimics FDR's "stimulus" packages, and none of it is good. Steve Horwitz explains:

One of the (correct) complaints about the proposed stimulus plan is that it's full of all kinds of programs that would appear to have nothing to do with any accepted economic theory about what sorts of spending could even possibly lead to recovery. The best example of this is the funds for family planning policy that are in the bill...

This isn't just your run-of-the-mill pork. What we are seeing happen right now is that Congress sees this crisis as an opportunity to enact a whole variety of programs that they've wanted to pass for years, especially (but not only) the Democrats who no longer fear a veto, and now finally have the chance. Just as the Patriot Act was a bunch of laws waiting for a political "crisis," so is much of the stimulus package a bunch of programs waiting for an economic "crisis." The current crisis is just a convenient excuse.

But that's not all. Lest we get overwhelmed with nostalgia, we should remember that the exact same thing was true of much of the New Deal. Numerous commentators, from Hughes and Cain's American economic history textbook to authors like Amity Shlaes, have pointed out that a great deal of what FDR did in his first two terms were ideas that had been bouncing around the American left for years, and the Great Depression became the chance to put them into practice. New Deal spending wasn't primarily about economic recovery, it was about transforming the American economy...

Paul Krugman Wakes Up Parts of Austrian Economics Nation

It's about time Paul Krugman is called on the nonsense he is writing at NYT. It's getting so out of hand that he has awoken parts of Austrian Economics Nation.

In separate commentaries, Bill Anderson, Steve Horwitz and Bob Murphy have pointed out major flaws in a recent Krugman columns.

Anderson of late has been using Krugman for target practice. He writes:

It's Monday, which means yet another howler from Paul Krugman. (I have given up on kicking the Krugman habit; he throws out one howler after another, and it seems that nearly all of them deserve a response.)

Anderson's entire comment is here.

Murphy took time away from his holiday travels to write:

As always, I am stunned by Krugman's latest blog post.

Find out what stunned Bob, here.

Horwitz weighs in with this comment:

Today's Krugman op-ed blog is a doozy...In my last post, I wondered whether Krugman really read what his opponents have to say, leaving open the question whether he was ignorant or malicious. Today's blog entry leaves much less doubt...

Find out how Horwitz resolves his doubt, here.

And, of course, I'm still wondering why Krugman hasn't given back his Nobel Prize.

A Christmas Present for Paul Krugman

All wrapped in logic, and delivered by Steve "Santa" Horwitz.

Ho,ho.ho!

Best Commentaries on the Blagojevich Arrest

From Bill Anderson:

Politicians like to see themselves as being the equal of successful business executives, but they generally strike me as people who don't have the ability to make it outside of government. They are mediocre people who might be cunning or ruthless, but in the business world, one must have real foresight into the market, and from what I can tell, most politicians don't have that ability.

They are more like the playground bullies who extort money and favors from other kids, but who generally are pathetic people.

From Steve Horwitz:

So the big news today is that the governor of Illinois has been caught doing explicitly what most politicians do with more subtlety every single day: selling off their power to the highest bidder. I can't help but note that yet another politician is indicted on corruption charges at the very same time we are handing over unprecedented power to the political class as we partially nationalize the banking system and, apparently, the Big Three auto companies.

There's much more in both commentaries. Anderson's is here and Horwtiz's is here.