Report Card for Donald Trump

[David Horn]

(12-18-2016, 04:54 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(12-17-2016, 01:39 PM)The Wonkette Wrote:

(12-16-2016, 11:27 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: He also argues that it worked well when it was used.  Do you agree with that?  If not, why are you bothering to bring him up?

Short and sandals work well in the summer when it is hot outside.  Unless you live in the Southern hemisphere (hi, Tara Marie!), they are completely inappropriate now.  Same with tax cuts; perhaps they were needed back in 1980 (during the late Awakening, when it was our saecular summer) but now in our saecular winter, we need other tools.

Certainly the situation now is different; in particular, as Bartlett points out, the situation Reagan was facing was inflationary, and the current situation is not.  Thus he is correct to critique Rubio's strategy of merely duplicating the deflationary supply side stimulus of the 1980s.

My proposal goes well beyond that, however.  For example, to address the wage disparities that have resulted from a supply side easy immigration policy for the past three decades, we need to clamp down on immigration and illegal immigrants.  That will be quite inflationary since it will increase wages, especially at the lower end of the scale.

It will also dampen growth, since it will restrict the labor supply.  To counteract the negative effects on growth, we will need some combination of monetary stimulus and fiscal stimulus.  Since both  the basic wage leveling policies and the monetary stimulus will be inflationary, we will need the fiscal stimulus to be supply side stimulus:  the deflationary effect of supply side stimulus will help counteract the inflationary effect of the immigration policies and monetary stimulus.

I wear a heavy coat and boots in the winter, but that doesn't mean I quit wearing my shirt and pants underneath.

This seems to be an excessively complicated way to achieve your goals.  Three actions can provide the intended results without the need for outside actors to take actions they may elect not to take.  First, raise the minimum wage.  $15 nationally, with a nod to more in high-wage areas, will move low wage earners to actual living wages.  Second, raise taxes on high incomes, and, for heavens sake, eliminate the special benefits that accrue to unearned income and large inheritances.  Third, Start an infrastructure building program that includes old (roads, bridges and the like) and new (smart grid, broadband everywhere, 5G wireless) projects that are truly investments in the economy. 

The rest will take care of itself.  As inflation kicks in, interest rates can be raised.  I'm no fan of the public purse being deprecated to private profits when "crowding out" occurs.  Right now, the public sphere needs far more attention.