#114 Alfred E. Obama and the Economy: What, Me Worry?

No, you shouldn't worry, Mr. President ... though it seems from some news reports that some of your team may be worried that "too much spending" (or at least the public perception thereof) may hurt election chances in 2012. HooHah! ... as Mad Magazine would be wont to exclaim. HooHah! You are doing just fine.

But as fired up as I am about "The War" (see last post), let me revisit The Economy (in a minute), which has effectively distracted most everybody from that truly life-and-death issue, BUT which is not at all unrelated to our economic problems. How about this?--Bring the troops home tomorrow. Could we save a little money? "Yes, but ..." Groans. Well, I'm sorry. That outrageous suggestion is based on one of the still totally unqualified and unsullied bedrock Libertarian principle that I might even die for: Defensive Wars Only! More of that later, but even those with less radical views would agree that we are wasting a shitload of money over there, and the sooner out , the better. I'm not letting Obama off the hook on this one. His grace period is about over.

Okay, back to over here. And now. And close to home: my former Significant Other is currently unemployed, primarily due to the recession. But ALL indicators point to stabilization and even improvement in most areas. I told you so ... way back in pre-Obama October (#92, 94-5) when even the likes of Republicans were throwing money around! The Big Bailout of '08. It's the basic tenet of what I've appropriated (#92) as the Alfred E. Newman School of Economics: Print Up the Money and Loan It To Almost Anybody (but be sure they pay you back). It has worked so far, even as Obama has now taken over as First Spender. For example, from the Associated Press: Ten banks ready to start paying back bailout next week. Americans pay their debts. Always have.

And that's not the only good news. Some other representative headlines this week:

• U.S. consumers' mood strongest in 9 months...

• Retail sales up by largest amount in months...

• New jobless claims drop more than expected...

• Dow-Jones pushes into the black for 2009...

The last item was again from the AP on Friday, and normally I wouldn't trust the stock market as an indicator of anything (I've been stung), especially on a day-to-day basis ... EXCEPT: mood. And here we have almost a half-year of Wall Street's quirky but steady comeback to assess the placebo effect of Obama's big spending. C'mon ... it's working. Don't hold back, Barack. May the immortal "What, Me Worry" be with you. The worst thing our new president could do right now is to give in to fears of "over-spending." Too-much can be taken back; not-enough can't. You can't "over-prime" a pump. Best to err on the side of extra-sufficiency, because in the long run, when the economy does come back, all of this seed money will come back along with it. Too optimistic? John Maynard Keynes and I will answer that charge in the next post.
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