Curt Doolittle

Form: Quote Commentary

  • COWEN GETS ON BOARD: THE PUBLIC HAS LOST FAITH IN GOVERNMENT i’ve been harping o

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/business/broken-trust-takes-time-to-mend-economic-view.htmlTYLER COWEN GETS ON BOARD: THE PUBLIC HAS LOST FAITH IN GOVERNMENT

    i’ve been harping on this for the past few years, particularly on Krugman’s, Mark Thoma’s and Karl Smith’s blogs (the left). I don’t think it’s going to change any time soon. It’s good to see a prominent economist getting on board.

    MY argument has been that the Keynesians are right in that increasing demand will work to stimulate the economy, but that people will not tolerate government spending because of the perceived cost of the expansion of invasive, and often privileged, government.

    As such, rather than offer spending solutions (as does Krugman) the answer is to suggest programs in monetary policy, fiscal policy, industrial policy and education policy, so that all sides get what they want without the expansion of the state. Only this method will work. The conservatives (in my view, rightly) will block anything else, and they have the voter support to block spending programs.

    As far back as 2006, I suggested that the power grid was the most important structural investment that we could make that would both generate a large number of jobs and provide a reasonable return on the investment. I suggested paying down mortgages directly as the most important vehicle for creating stimulus. I agreed with Karl Smith that we should give an extended tax holiday and borrow at such low rates to pay for it. And among other things, I suggested various forms of industrial policy, particularly technology bonuses for achieving strategic investment objectives. I recommended either privatizing education using a voucher system or eliminating the DofEd and giving principles hire and fire authority and the ability to experiment. These factors would create enough stimulus to move the economy. But more importantly, these kinds of spending do not expand the state, or favor urban voters at the expense of suburban and rural voters.

    At the very least the conversation would be productive, commercially and socially engaging.

    But the keynesians actually block it by harping on the spending tactic exclusively.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-06-17 21:39:00 UTC

  • “I consider Libertarians to be like Celtic barbarians deployed by British kings

    “I consider Libertarians to be like Celtic barbarians deployed by British kings in the Middle Ages against the Scots or the French. They are extremely useful for fighting your enemies, but you would never want one to actually sit on the throne. ” – Jonah Goldberg, National Review

    I’m not quite sure what I think that’s so funny, and so true. But I can’t stop laughing. It’s exactly how conservatives use libertarians.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-06-12 19:35:00 UTC

  • FROM: Krugmanville QUOTE: “I’m waiting for the .1% to realize that increase in d

    FROM: Krugmanville

    QUOTE: “I’m waiting for the .1% to realize that increase in demand will bring increase in earnings. The path to profit maximization does not include depression. At some point politicians and private equity firms will realize stimulating the economy is in their interests.” /QUOTE

    Curt Doolittle, Seattle WA

    It may be comforting to view one’s opposition as clueless, stupid or ignorant. But it isn’t true. This conservative strategy has been consistent since the Reagan era, when conservatives looked at demographic data and determined that it was no longer possible to work within the state, only in competition with it, in an effort to bankrupt it.

    So your argument about the .1% “realizing” something, or that they can make more money funding consumption doesn’t wash. It’s not about money. It’s about constraining the state. The .1% are ‘hired’, and empowered by the conservatives as an opposition to the intrusive state’s assault on norms. So, no one is clueless here. It’s a strategy and it’s working. And it’s going to continue to work because of demographics. Because of those demographics, polarization is a permanent property of the American empire.

    The founder’s use of majority rule assumed a dominant christian agrarian populace. It was a vehicle for preserving the power of that social order through common interest. Addition of women to the electorate undermined that dynamic. Immigration altered it. Breeding rates made it permanent. Urbanization and density preference exacerbated it. And the result is necessary polarization as one group that’s biased female uses the state and the other that’s biased male uses commerce. And nothing is going to change that dynamic other than a substantial decrease in single parenthood, and small households, or a rapid change in racial breeding rate distributions. Since those factors are unlikely to occur in an industrialized society, the polarization will be exacerbated and permanent until there is some conflict that restructures the constitution, or some innovation that renders the state less meaningful as a means of redistribution.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-06-09 10:43:00 UTC

  • ACCOMPLISHED Karl is one of the best bloggers in American economics today. He’s

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/modeledbehavior/2012/05/23/welcome-to-the-new-blog/MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

    Karl is one of the best bloggers in American economics today. He’s a rare honest progressive that mixes flawlessly unbiased ‘Smithian’ analysis of the data with relentlessly consistent policy ideas without descending into the partisan quackery that’s so pervasive among the progressive writers. While I’d hoped that he’d end up on The Post or Washington Times in order to counter the NYT, where his work would more naturally affect the daily political discourse, it’s perhaps more natural a fit, and more intellectually gratifying to have him in the family, at Forbes.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-23 08:50:00 UTC

  • THE TOP THEORETICAL TAX RATE REALY 70% OR IS IT REALLY 50%? This article discuss

    http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/300373/guest-post-arpit-gupta-saez-and-diamond-taxes-arpit-guptaIS THE TOP THEORETICAL TAX RATE REALY 70% OR IS IT REALLY 50%?

    This article discusses top tax rates in tolerably accessible terms.

    I’ll buy that it’s 48%, depending upon where it’s graduated. But as I’ve stated repeatedly, it has to be constructed on a rolling average of income, not that of a single year, which penalizes the middle class for rare events that pay for their retirements. Otherwise there is no 1% (or the more accurate .017%) because something close to 30% of people end up in that high tax bracket at some time in their lives, and that’s too big a block to alienate through aggressive taxation that threatens their retirement savings that come from almost entirely from rare events.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-19 17:47:00 UTC

  • BULL MARKET OVER? “You can blame Europe…you can blame the Fed…or you can blame h

    BULL MARKET OVER?

    “You can blame Europe…you can blame the Fed…or you can blame high energy prices. But no matter where you put the blame – it appears that our brief, nine-week bull market is over.” – William James, Eastman

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-17 14:33:00 UTC

  • IS DONE – BUT SO IS THE AMERICAN EMPIRE “The focus on Greece is right. And all a

    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/jogging-for-the-exit/GREECE IS DONE – BUT SO IS THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

    “The focus on Greece is right. And all allusions to these intertwined threads are worthwhile, as we wait for the American Empire to crumble under its rusty tanks.” – Sangita, Virginia.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-16 10:47:00 UTC

  • the hormonal influence of ovulation, women delude themselves into thinking that

    http://gizmo.do/h4Yq”Under the hormonal influence of ovulation, women delude themselves into thinking that the sexy bad boys will become devoted partners and better dads. When looking at the sexy cad through ovulation goggles, Mr. Wrong looked exactly like Mr. Right.”

    Unfortunately, men are wearing testosterone goggles all the time. And so ‘crazy’ is a lot harder to resist. Except that ‘crazy’ doesn’t go away with motherhood. It expands exponentially to fill all available space. sigh.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-15 18:21:00 UTC

  • IS DEAD MILITARILY” Kaplan also makes the argument that nato will prevent german

    http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/natos-ordinary-future-robert-d-kaplan”EUROPE IS DEAD MILITARILY”

    Kaplan also makes the argument that nato will prevent germany from an alliance with Russia. The problem is I don’t see that as a bad thing. In fact, I see it as perhaps the best thing possible for western civilization. Let the catholics become the balkans. The anglos are fragmented by hemispheric trade. And there Germans will improve the behavior of the Russians. And both can help keep the east at bay.

    I’m in the camp that the anglo alliance as wrong, and germany was right, and the destruction of germany was the destruction of the heart of the west. A german russian alliance seems like a good step in recovering from that mistake.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-09 07:47:00 UTC

  • ONLY GOOD ARTICLE ON PITCHING VC’S I’VE EVER READ (I would add, that your team s

    http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22271192791/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-8-notes-essayTHE ONLY GOOD ARTICLE ON PITCHING VC’S I’VE EVER READ

    (I would add, that your team should to be tight, and have clear roles.)

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-07 10:22:00 UTC