Jimmy Carter inherited a broken economy from the Republicans, and made the exact right moves: he appointed Volcker as Chairman of the Fed, and Volcker let interest rates go up to 21%, wiping out plenty of bad businesses. that is only one half...
The other half was Carter pushed through deregulation of air travel, trucking, beer and telephony, which gave the economy something to work on and we got more, better, cheaper, faster in travel, transportation, beer and telephony. The internet is the result of Jimmy Carter's moves. Of course there is a time lag for effects, so Ronald Reagan got all of the credit for Jimmy Carters policies.
If Obama wanted to do as much good as Carter, Obama could solve the health care crisis by deregulating health care. It ain't going to happen, because Obama has none of Carter's experience, wisdom, intelligence or integrity. Of course Carter was the kind of guy who would take the one term hit for his policies, Obama is not.
It doesn't have to be medicine...we could deregulate education and restart the economy... we could deregulate the garment industry and jump start it... something.... anything! It does not matter.. but we'll never restart until we allow something to grow...
Reagan did have a good line... "govt policy is "if it moves, tax it... if it keeps moving, regulate it... if it stops moving, subsidize it..." A good summary of the life cycle of USA innovation.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
We Need Jimmy Carter Now!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Not to belittle the achievements that you mentioned, there is, however, a debit side to the balance sheet. Carter was the prime mover in the creation of the Department of Energy in 1977 as well as the signer of the National Energy Act and the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act, two pieces of legislation that were founded on the premise that the government knows better than the free market how to conserve and develop energy resources. The Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979provided a precedent for recent bailout legislation. The Windfall Profits Tax of 1980 ended up causing more dependence on foreign oil, something that the government had supposedly been trying to rectify in other legislation (classic case of the right hand knoweth not what the left hand doeth). The Federal Government ran a deficit every year of Carter's administration.
By the way, you didn't mention that oil was deregulated under Carter, in response to the 1979 energy crisis. Regulations had originally been imposed by that bumbling fool Nixon and had already been responsible for the oil crisis of 1973. It's the two strikes rule for bad legislation- no one ever repeals a law until it's done harm at least twice!
Two excellent points... as to the new departments, well, yes, he is a dem... as to deregulating oil... I had forgotten.. marc Rich had personally and singlely ended the 1970's energy crisis by exploiting stupid government policy, and became a billionaire in the process. He was prosecuted for bending the rules to solve the crisis and he fled to switzerland. Clinton properly pardoned this american hero, but TRich has not returned, since there are so many seething prosecutors out to get him, like martha stewart.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/12/jimmy-carter-history-greatest-monster
Jimmy Carter and Patents too.
The article is actually Jimmy Carter friendly, noting his Justice Dept loked at some things, but it was Reagan who passed the lawa, and this..
"Hidden in this story, however, is the key fact that demolishes the argument in favor of software patents: "the mid-90s." Before that, software patents were rare or nonexistent. And guess what: The era from 1950 through 1995 featured one of the most innovative and fruitful tech explosions in history. Billions of lines of software were produced, the world was transformed, and it was all done without patent protection."
The article is actually Jimmy Carter friendly, noting his Justice Dept loked at some things, but it was Reagan who passed the lawa, and this..
"Hidden in this story, however, is the key fact that demolishes the argument in favor of software patents: "the mid-90s." Before that, software patents were rare or nonexistent. And guess what: The era from 1950 through 1995 featured one of the most innovative and fruitful tech explosions in history. Billions of lines of software were produced, the world was transformed, and it was all done without patent protection."
Post a Comment