Colorado Springs: A Teabagger Paradise

[Torie]

Another paper, yet another, came out today, by two Harvard economists, that just spending more in an economic downturn, in a cross country analysis, does not work nearly as well as tax cuts. I will try to find it in due course. I don't claim to be an expert on macro economics (micro economics is my thing), but I think some modesty about this all is in order. Maybe we don't know as much as we think we know. Is that at all possible?

[Torie]

So many issues, so little time. The dirty little secret however, is that taxing  the "rich" more won't really get "mainstream"  liberals where they want to go very much. It just isn't that easy. And it is case specific, and yes, building up a rainy day fund when we are flush, is prudent. However, in the case of the Feds, that just means paying down the debt a bit. And neither party is much interested in telling folks who really don't deserve laws that benefit them, who are in their base, that cost us a ton, directly or indirectly, that they need to just chill out, and get on a diet. Is there any other way, in particular, to move funds to where they are most needed?

Neither party is honest about the hard choices we face. That was why I flipped positive, when Obama at least hinted at it, in his meeting with the GOP caucus. We need more of that kind of talk - in short - we need more candor. We need more politicians with the balls to treat us like adults, and not spoiled children, even if it means their political careers per the conventional wisdom, might be over. But I suspect, their careers won't be over, if they deal with the tough choices in a fair and balanced way, and are candid  about it. I know that when I try to be that way, I more often engender respect, from all sides, more often than not.

[Torie]

Another paper, yet another, came out today, by two Harvard economists, that just spending more in an economic downturn, in a cross country analysis, does not work nearly as well as tax cuts.

The CBO disagrees.

OK. They already commented on the Harvard paper?  Gosh they are efficient!

[Torie]

Ya, that is true, although the time horizon is important. Investment pays off in the long run, and the rich don't put their money under a mattress typically (although that SOS Powell in Illinois, put his cash bribe money in shoe boxes in a closet (about 800K), and that was well, deflationary actually. Are you old enough JS to remember that one? 

 As you know, I am not the type to bitch about my tax rate. And even when I was more conservative, I didn't bitch. In fact, I was morally uncomfortable using (although I did use), some tax loopholes that were available back when that I thought were wrong.

I am kind of an unpredictable chap aren't I? 

[Torie]

Probably better to see Detriot as an extreme example of the damage done to American cities by various structural changes that the city government had no control over. Not that having Coleman Young as Mayor for so long helped matters much...

It is kind of tough to run a city where the underclass is five times as large as the middle class, isn't it?

[Torie]

Another problem with Detroit is that Henry Ford let the banks all fail in Detroit (it is discussed in that great book on the auto industry by Halberstram (sp) I think), and the town never really developed white collar service industries in the way that most other major cities did; as a consequence its downtown always had this hollowed out kind of feeling. So it was a one act town, and when the act went down, that was the coup de grace on a place that was already reeling from a host of problems, not the least of which was a long reign of horrific governance.

But about a quarter of the acreage in Detroit is not totally empty, or nearly so (look at an aerial map), and perhaps in due course some might give it another look because it's so cheap.