Monday, August 1, 2016

Trump the Keynesian causes Libertarian Heads to Explode

Right here. Except this libertarian idiot connects Keynesianism to Herbert Hoover, which demonstrates, if nothing else, how libertarians never seem to get anything right.

Apparently Trump did an interview recently where he said this:
“Mr. Trump himself said in a telephone interview last week that he believed more borrowing and spending would help lift economic growth, a departure from traditional Republican economics.

‘It’s called priming the pump,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘Sometimes you have to do that a little bit to get things going. We have no choice — otherwise, we are going to die on the vine.’”
Nelson D. Schwartz, “Clinton? Trump? Either Way, Count on Deficit Spending to Rise,” New York Times July 31, 2016.
I can’t track this interview down, and would be interested to see what he actually said in full.

If true, it would not be surprising, since in Chapter 12 of Trump’s book Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again (New York, 2015), even if supposedly largely ghostwritten, we find passages praising infrastructure projects as a way to create jobs and even invoking the Keynesian multiplier and the positive effects of such infrastructure stimulus on private sector economic activity. “If we do what we have to do correctly,” we read, “we can create the biggest economic boom in this country since the New Deal when our vast infrastructure was first put into place.” There are hints that deficit-financed spending is envisaged as the way to pay for this.

I like what I’m hearing, Donald.

I’m on Twitter:
Lord Keynes @Lord_Keynes2
https://twitter.com/Lord_Keynes2

15 comments:

  1. Trump has advocated tax cuts across the board. At the same time he wants to maintain social security and medicare, two of Americas most expensive social programs. Building the wall and securing the border won;t be cheap wither. He also has said good things about medicaid and wants to improve our physical infrastructure. Top that off with his belief in revamping the military and making it more powerful and modern and what you're left with is a massive spending spree with no real talk of cuts anywhere.

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    1. Yeah, I agree. I think Keynesians who are looking to Trump as their Great White Hope are going to be sadly disappointed:


      https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/756326441856499712/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

      He'd probably blow things up so bad the US will be Austrian for the next 10 generations. You can't really depend on anything he says.

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    2. (1) how does the fact that his company makes things in China now mean that he couldn't impose protectionism as president and stop the loss of US manufacturing? lol

      (2) also Trump has broken with the neocons and again and again with the worst and most extreme aspects of US foreign policy, but still we hear this B.S. that he is worse than Hillary, to whom a number of neocons are now flocking.

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    3. how does the fact that his company makes things in China now mean that he couldn't impose protectionism as president and stop the loss of US manufacturing? lol

      Oh I dunno - Acting in accordance with your stated beliefs? Avoiding hypocrisy? "He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much" - As a famous ancient itinerant Palestinian was known for saying.

      Trump has broken with the neocons

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/27/trump-inconsistencies-foreign-policy

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-incoherent-inconsistent-incomprehensible-foreign-policy/2016/04/28/9fb33006-0caa-11e6-8ab8-9ad050f76d7d_story.html

      http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-04-27/trumps-america-first-foreign-policy-littered-with-contradictions

      http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434660/donald-trumps-foreign-policy-incoherent-and-uniformed

      http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/04/donald_trump_s_foreign_policy_speech_was_an_incoherent_mess.html

      http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/04/27/experts-and-fact-checkers-blast-donald-trumps-incoherent-and-fact-free-foreign-policy-speech/210122

      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-foreign-policy-speech-5-contradictions-in-the-presidential-hopefuls-plan-a7005711.html

      http://reason.com/archives/2016/05/04/trumps-foreign-policy-contradictions

      https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/campaigns-elections/donald-trump-convictions-inconsistency

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  2. Deficits are not inherently bad. Depends how you spend it. There's a lot of infrastructure that needs work. Trump is frankly more likely to spend on useful things than public sector union owned Hillary is.

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  3. Lk, what with Trump's foreign policy statements I can't see what your fixation is with him. He seems like he would draw down US involvement in the Middle East (although who knows what he'll say next week.) Since you seem to not think US interference has caused anything, and put it all down to "Muh Intrinsic Muslim Evil" it would seem like you'd be fine with more wars over there,as long as it provided a Keynesian stimulus?

    If I'm wrong, I'd like you to correct the record here. Thanks.

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    1. "Since you seem to not think US interference has caused anything>

      I've never said that, Kevin. Don't f*cking lie. Yes, US policy and interventions have contributed to the radicalisation of the Middle East and the tidal wave Islamism.

      This doesn't change the fact that conservative Islam and Islamism are filled with illiberal, regressive, gay-hating, misogynist ideas, which are incompatible with what most people in the West believe.

      We can't keep having unending mass immigration of such people into the West. If it continues, Europe will collapse into civil war.

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    2. Kevin's argument makes no sense on its face. What is a plausible mechanism by which Western interference might mess things up? By unleashing ills already there, by disrupting balances between them. But then you are right and his absurd claims are wrong.

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    3. What is a plausible mechanism by which Western interference might mess things up?

      Is this a serious question?

      By unleashing ills already there, by disrupting balances between them

      Silly. Take all the cops of the street for a year. Watch society in chaos. "Well I guess the ills were already there and we only unleashed them and disturbed the balance."

      That's exactly what you are saying.

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    4. This doesn't change the fact that conservative Islam and Islamism are filled with illiberal, regressive, gay-hating, misogynist ideas, which are incompatible with what most people in the West believe

      http://www.avoiceformen.com/gynocentrism/the-myth-of-patriarchal-oppression-in-iran

      http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/indentured-servitude-for-men-in-iran-the-myth-of-patriarchal-oppressive-divorce-alimony

      http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/when-female-privilege-backfires-2

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    5. I've never said that, Kevin. Don't f*cking lie. Yes, US policy and interventions have contributed to the radicalisation of the Middle East and the tidal wave Islamism.

      Sorry, I guess I was getting your comments mixed up in my hear with Mr. Marmur's, whom I still intend to get back to.

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  4. Trump is going to win, I think. All the pollsters are too biased to see the truth. But here it is.

    Everyone knows Clinton. They do not know Trump. When something like a convention happens more people are exposed to the arguments of both candidates. This usually leads to a poll bump for each candidate. The relative strength of this bump can tell you a lot about what voters that are currently undecided are going to do when the end of the election cycle comes up and they are flooded by the media with the candidates' statements just before they make up their mind.

    Today is five days after the Democratic convention. Clinton has bounced 1.2 points. Five days after the Republican convention Trump had bounced 3 points.

    Trump's post convention bounce is more than double Clinton's as of today. I think this says a lot about how the undecideds will move when election day approaches.

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    1. The way I see Trump winning is because he offers hope. It was the same thing about Brexit, Bremain was basically saying that things are as good as they can get. Things like Putin don't matter to most US voters, I don't understand why Hillary is beating that drum. I think most ordinary americans agree with elite's take on Putin, it just doesn't matter to them that much.

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    2. The polls are not "biased." If you follow the polls during the primaries they consistently showed him ahead in places he won, and not ahead in places he lost. Bernie Sanders was the only one who pulled real surprises. Also, your numbers appear to be off:

      http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html

      Trump has ignited enthusiastic support, but it's only among a certain crowd. I don't think Independents, Democrats, Hispanics, Women or Veterans are going to break for him. I could be wrong, but I'm betting otherwise.

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