Ace of Spades HQ

June 09, 2011

A Quick Dose of Midday DOOM!
— andy

Ace beat me to the tip of the DOOM! iceberg, but no worries. There's plenty more where that come from.

First up, the ghost of John Maynard Keynes tweets: @Democrats UR doin it wrong #asshats

I am tired of politicians like President Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner quoting Keynes to justify their spending plans when politicians consistently refuse to listen to Keynes' complete message

...

What Keynes said on not cutting spending in a recession has been widely quoted, correctly

...

What those quoting him forget though is that Keynes said governments should run a budget surplus in the good times

That link goes to CNBC, so I'm wondering if maybe the @ tweet was really supposed to be DM. There's a lot of that going around lately.

Now Keynes was, in scientific terms, not even wrong, but it really is unfair to call what we're doing "Keynesian Economics." It's even more half-assed than that.

Keynesian "pump priming" presumes you have something with which to prime the pump. That "something" is fiscal prudence during the good times. We walked away from that boring old concept with the New Deal and broke into a full sprint with the Great Society. Result: boned!

Related: Amity Shlaes kicks teh Krugman in the poon.

On to the Loyal Order of the Terminally Boned. Charter member Illinois tried an innovative solution to their fiscal problems. They raised taxes. Unexpectedly™, businesses made noise about fleeing the state, so they gave them ... wait for it ... tax incentives to stay put.

The good news is that corporate tax receipts in Springfield are up by about $300 million amid the economic recoveryÂ—though the state comptroller's office announced in April that the state still faces $8 billion in unpaid bills. The bad news is that, according to the state's Department of Commerce, Illinois has already shelled out some $230 million in corporate subsidies to keep more than two dozen companies from fleeing the state. And more are on the way.

...

The irony is that the recipients of these sweetheart deals are the very enterprises that [Governor] Quinn was counting on to pay more taxes. Six months ago the Governor and union economists said the Illinois tax hike wouldn't chase businesses out of the state. Now Mr. Quinn is seducing businesses to stay by chopping their tax liabilities.

Brilliant! The article might be behind the WSJ's paywall, but read the whole thing for a good laugh or two if you can. Unless you live in Illinois. L; R - Obamanomics; reality

Posted by: andy at 09:42 AM | Comments (21)
Post contains 434 words, total size 3 kb.

1 First DOOM!

Posted by: cicerokid at June 09, 2011 09:53 AM (osUof)

2 There's a second major non-Keynesianism to what the asshat-in-chief is doing. And it's summed up by this paraphase of his: "It's government spending, so it's all good, right?"

The entire point of Keynesian spending is that you need to get a multiplier effect from doing a very good job of focusing your money one (1) employing -new- people, and (2) building honest, rate-of-return-guaranteed-type infrastructure.

When you look through the actual crap 'we' bought, there's a thin veneer of 'infrastructure', but even that is mostly neither new-workers-here nor really infrastructure.

0 x 0 gets a very cruddy multiplier effect. (Even if there -is- such a thing.) Meaning: Keynes would have been appalled.

Posted by: Al at June 09, 2011 09:54 AM (MzQOZ)

3 Yay more Doom!

Posted by: NC Ref at June 09, 2011 09:55 AM (vXmfP)

My 11-year old prounounced de ketteh as the "Evil fluffball of DOOM!".

If you prime the pump with water from the pump, is that a bad thing? Is that like drinking your own pee?

Posted by: cicerokid at June 09, 2011 09:56 AM (osUof)

5 Andy, Me and My Pussys

Posted by: PeePeePundit at June 09, 2011 09:56 AM (+sBB4)

6 The good news is that corporate tax receipts in Springfield are up by about $300 million amid the economic recovery... The bad news is that... Illinois has already shelled out some $230 million in corporate subsidies to keep more than two dozen companies from fleeing the state. And more are on the way. Hey, ya gots to spend money to save money. Or something. Anyway, it won't cost us more than $350 million, tops, to keep raking in $300 million in taxes. We'll pay for it with more taxes.

Posted by: Illinois Democrats at June 09, 2011 09:57 AM (AZGON)

7 The point for illinois wasn't more revenue, the tax hike was there so they could have more corruption. This allowed them to pick winners and losers and get bigger bribes from their business friends/tax_cattle.

Posted by: NAME REDACTED at June 09, 2011 09:57 AM (vhtNy)

Bush gave tax incentives to stay in business. Right? Right?!

Posted by: cicerokid at June 09, 2011 09:59 AM (osUof)

9 Amity Shlaes is my hero in that Forgotten Man book.

Posted by: Vic at June 09, 2011 10:00 AM (M9Ie6)

10 Quinn's brand of stupidity(also pursued by both dems and repubs in the state, in various ways) is our only hope, here in IL.

Let the toppling continue!

Seriously: it is so entreched-ly bad here, collapse is the only solution.

These nitwits hasten the day. Hallelujah.

Posted by: Lizbth at June 09, 2011 10:08 AM (JZBti)

11 Sweet baby Jesus. It's not like Obamao is trying to use Keynes and made a mistake. These people aren't trying to fix the economy, except perhaps in the sense that one fixes a cat. The Radical-in-Chief has other plans. And people who were paying attention in 2008 knew this. I'm tired of pretending we're dealing with well-intended buffoons instead of malevolent buffoons.

Posted by: Merovign, Dark Lord of the Sith's Mobile at June 09, 2011 10:21 AM (ttaCN)

Saw a link on Drudge to a story on Treasury bond sales - a) nobody is buying them, so b) the Treasury will have to raise interest rates.

All together now - deep breath in - get ready - UNEXPECTEDLY!

Posted by: Penultimatum at June 09, 2011 10:45 AM (dJ7er)

13 Ahhhh... Sweet, Sweet DOOOMM!!!

WEINER!!!!

Uhhhh... Doomed Weiner?

Posted by: Gary at June 09, 2011 10:51 AM (e8T35)

14 Amity Shlaes kicks teh Krugman in the poon.

If only.

I'd pay good money to see someone do it for real.

Posted by: Blacque Jacques Shellacque at June 09, 2011 10:53 AM (1rHeD)

15 Math is racist.

Posted by: toby928™ at June 09, 2011 10:53 AM (GTbGH)

On Illinois... once more many miss the Moral arguement.

The State Gov is raising taxes on some businesses, while NOT on others through the Tax Break mechanism...

So its not just the Dollars and Cents part of it being stupid... its the unequal Application of the Law which KILLS the idea of a Republic.

Its like the ObamaCare crap... if only some companies have to play, and its only at the Governments whim that they do NOT have to play.... and can change at any time... they will PAY to put those in power who will not make them Pay...

Legal Bribery through the Campaign contribution system... is still bribery... BUT THE REPUBS DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT BECAUSE THEY SUCK FROM THE SAME TIT!

Posted by: Romeo13 at June 09, 2011 10:56 AM (NtXW4)

17 Too bad Obama's a crypto muslim or we could be out of this depression in 12 months.

How, you ask?

All out war on Iran and North Korea (after assuring the Chinese that they can have the land after we bomb the NORKS nuke facilities.
++
Ultimatum to the Muslim world: Stop supporting terrorists no matter their 'cause' or we will bomb and invade you too.

Worked for FDR. We even have their own threats and an actual sneak attack to provide justification.

If only the Europeans Dems had some balls they'd get behind this idea.

Remember this in 6 months while you're picking over the stale bread and leftover pizza from Pizza Hut's dumpster in the middle of the AM.

Posted by: 8==> The Weiner Wave Is Back at June 09, 2011 11:12 AM (fiLQD)

18 The only people who still act like Keynes's theories have any merit are those who believe Keynesian policies can benefit them politically. Actual economic theory has advanced well beyond Keynes.

Posted by: Sjg at June 09, 2011 01:03 PM (NNAIz)

19 I live in Illinois. crap.

Posted by: mueller at June 09, 2011 01:26 PM (QO+2f)

20 Plus, I think Keynes assumed that the government would build stuff, like roads and bridges and TVA stations, things that would help business grow.

Shoring up teacher pension funds doesn't exactly make it.

Where are the bridges? Where are the skyscrapers?

Posted by: PJ at June 09, 2011 03:28 PM (tybhV)

21 He makes the rest of Congress look just as disgusting by his continued presence in the same room. swf to video converter
Will a wildfire be blamed? hard drives and air chillers wind down i feel the solar wind video to ipad converter
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Posted by: chaeli at June 10, 2011 01:12 AM (H6JXe)

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