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Short-Term Profits Ahead of Long Term Prosperity
June 7, 2010 You Can't Have it Both Ways

Private companies have a monopoly on that, right? Warren Meyer reminds us of the reality:

But supporters of government superiority to private enterprise argue that this is exactly why government is superior, because it does not have these short-term focused goals.  HAH!

Politicians are among the worst at this.  It used to be they would do short term things to get elected, leaving the following election to take care of itself.  Now, they will take short term actions just to dominate the current news cycle.  Next week? That’s an eternity, we have problems now.  Every single action taken over the last two years by both this and the previous administration and the current one relative to the economy have been totally short-term focused.  Let’s bail everyone out.  Moral hazard?  That’s the next administration’s problem.  Just look at cash for clunkers, where the government paid $4000 for cars that blue-booked for $1500 all to pull September sales into August.  But they won the news cycle in August!

Read the whole thing.

"1" Comment
  1. HAH indeed.

    For a quarter century they have kicked the economic can down the road. GHWB did not kick the international can, after he kicked something when he got had by George Mitchell. GHWB believed Milton Friedman was the high priest of voodoo economics, and probably still does. Give him credit for postponing World III.

    Give Clinton credit for lowering capital gains rates, after he was beaten by events. One step back, but always eventually two steps forward, always vilifying any attempt to make us more free. He also kicked the middle east can far down the road. Jamie Goelerick, who was to become with (Claude?) Raines a monarch of Fannie Mae, would agressively fortify the wall between the CIA and the FBI. That really kicked the can all the way from Dupont Circle all the way into Prince George’s County.

    Today, everybody kicks the cans so much, it looks like soccer practice in a country that can’t afford a ball.

    There some people running for big offices who have the long view, wintercow.

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