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"The New Malaise and How to End It"

And no, it doesn’t involve putting on a sweater and learning to accept that we just ain’t that special as a country. Kevin Warsh, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, writing in the WSJ:

After a cyclical boost early this year, the current state of the U.S. economy is unimpressive: modest growth, high levels of unemployment, stagnant wages, low levels of consumer and business sentiment, and volatile financial markets. Extrapolating from recent data, many predict only a middling recovery in the next several years. They call it “the new normal.” I call it the new malaise.

The prevailing theory has it that U.S. policy makers should not deny our foregone fate. We should accept smaller improvements in output and employment and productivity. We should resign ourselves to the new normal and conduct policy accordingly. That is the last best hope, they argue, to preserve the remaining vestiges of a golden age that is no more.

I reject this view. I consider this emerging ethos to be dangerous and defeatist and debunked by America’s own exceptional economic history. Our citizens are not unwitting victims of some unavoidable fate. The current period of subpar growth and high unemployment is real, but it need not persist. We should not lower our expectations. We should improve our policies.

[…]

Policy makers should be skeptical of the long-term benefits of temporary fixes to do the hard work of resurrecting the world’s great economic power. Since early 2008, the fiscal authorities have sought to fill the hole left by the falloff in demand through large, temporary stimulus—checks in the mail to spur consumption, temporary housing rebates to raise demand, one-time cash-for-clunkers to move inventory, and temporary business tax credits to spur investment.

These programs may well have boosted gross domestic product for a quarter or two, but that is scarcely a full accounting of their effects. These stimulus programs did little to put the economy on a stronger, more sustainable trajectory. Sound fiscal policy must do more than reacquaint consumers with old, bad habits.

Policy makers should take notice of the critical importance of the supply side of the economy. The supply side establishes the economy’s productive capacity. Recovery after a recession demands that capital and labor be reallocated. But the reallocation of these resources to new sectors and companies has been painfully slow and unnecessarily interrupted. We are feeling the ill effects.

Fiscal authorities should resist the temptation to increase government expenditures continually in order to compensate for shortfalls of private consumption and investment. A strict economic diet of fiscal austerity has greater appeal, a kind of penance owed for the excesses of the past. But root-canal economics also does not constitute optimal economic policy.

The U.S. would be better off with a third way: pro-growth economic policy. The U.S. and world economies urgently need stronger growth, and the adoption of pro-growth economic policies would strengthen incentives to invest in capital and labor over the horizon, paving the way for robust job-creation and higher living standards.

Pro-growth policies include reform of the tax code to make it simpler, more transparent and more conducive to long-term investment. These policies also include real regulatory reform so that firms—financial and otherwise—know the rules, and then succeed or fail. Regulators should be hostile to rent-seeking by the established, and hospitable to the companies whose names we do not know. Finally, the creep of trade protectionism is anathema to pro-growth policies. The U.S. should signal to the world that it is ready to resume leadership on trade.

[my emphasis]

Last night, resident troll AJB — presumably believing himself to be repudiating current “conservative” thinking — linked to a piece in which former Reagan budget director David Stockman criticized the GOP call for extending the Bush tax cuts.

But what AJB missed (I know, surprise!) was Stockman’s concomitant criticize of the Fed and their “stimulus” efforts — essentially, to follow Paul Krugman’s advice and inflate our way out of debt.

Here, Warsh recommends precisely the recovery path Tea Party conservatives have themselves recommended — and that I noted in response to AJB last evening was different from the cartoonish versions of what conservatives, libertarians, and classical liberals wish to so that are being foisted on the electorate by the likes of Christiane Amanpour (who, in her defense, is probably not incorrect, were she to narrow her focus to many country club GOPers, who don’t mind the spendings all that much, and would be happy simply with tax cuts).

The fact is, as I wrote last night:

keeping the taxes as they are now — which is not a tax cut — will work in concert with spending cuts and hopefully other things, like corporate tax cuts and a roll-back of regulation that pushes jobs off shore and keeps businesses too scared to invest resources in the US [to correct the economy.]

If the government needs to raise revenue, as Amanpour argues, they can do so by cutting layers and layers of bureaucracy.

As Warsh goes on to note:

The deleveraging by our households and businesses is not a pattern to be arrested, but good prudence to be celebrated. Larger, more liquid corporate balance sheets and higher personal saving rates are the reasonable and right responses to massive government dissaving and unpredictable government policies. The steep correction in housing markets, while painful, lays the foundation for recovery, far better than the countless programs that have sought to subsidize and temporize the inevitable repricing. It is these transitions in our market economy—and the adoption of pro-growth fiscal, regulatory and trade policies—that lay the essential groundwork for greater, more sustainable prosperity.

I agree. And I also suggest that the GOP begin crafting its message on trade policy in order to beat back the new vein of neo-isolationism that is developing within the conservative movement (driven largely by Pat Buchanan and the anti-“outsourcing” crowd).

We can certainly work to bring about fairness in our trade agreements; but that is a different animal entirely than making overtures about the ills of free trade.

Ironically, the “outsourcing” attack was leveled by Dems in elections against people like Pat Toomey; and yet the President is spending somewhere between $1.4 and $2 billion dollars just now on a trip to Asia and the subcontinent in which he appears to be talking up free trade with India.

Puzzling, that.

158 Replies to “"The New Malaise and How to End It"”

  1. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – At some point, even the most abdurant of ideological asshats gets it. Obama’s not stupid, just badly disillusioned, but disillusionment in the hands of a earnest narcissistic believer is teh danger down wind.

    – He knows what needs to be done, he’s just not allowed to say it or admit it. AJB knows the great experiment has failed yet again, but admitting that would take away his last reason for living.

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  3. alppuccino says:

    Obama’s not stupid

    And that’s where you lost me. To be so disillusioned in the face of mounting evidence is stupid.

    I’m describing Obama, not you BBH. (even though the evidence-pile for Obama’s stupidity is pretty high now)

  4. sdferr says:

    Christiane Amampour is, I think, a simpleton in disguise as a sophisticate, hence a dangerous example taken as a person thinking seriously about national budgetary, fiscal and monetary policy. She hasn’t the credibility to find useful or interesting questions even, which is a job at least potentially within the grasp of an ignorant or naive thinker on these subjects. She is good at driving an empty ideological point of view with her questions though. This, however, is an act which assumes the answers she ostensibly seeks are already well in her hand, eschewing any possible surprise.

  5. happyfeet says:

    a little country what can’t say that cheap plentiful energy is a policy goal isn’t gonna have a whole shit-load of luck with that industrial revolution thing

    – a little country what can spend a trillion dollars in bullshit stimulus monies without furthering a goal of cheap plentiful energy not even a little is a fucking joke

  6. alppuccino says:

    Hey happyfeet, I heat my house with firewood which I acquire for only the cost of my own labor off of my property, so there are some of us Americans who know how to achieve the goal of cheap energy.

    Obama is not our country and I’ll ask you to remember that. Remember he is the “mirror for America” and you know what the reflection in the mirror is – it’s the opposite.

  7. Bob Reed says:

    I agree with everything Warsh says in his WSJ piece; they’re many of the same things I’ve been saying for some time, but, you know, who am I and who listens to me anyway :) It makes me feel much better that one of the Fed’s own board members is speaking out like this.

    Because he’s right, this surrender to “the new normal” is essentially the “malaise” excuse of Carteer’s day, redux. Folks like Reagan and his cadre of advisors knew it was B.S. then as people know it is now. But what can’t be discounted is the “bad faith, hate America” crowd’s desire to see this as the new normal, as the US getting part of the comeuppance it deserves; and in order to “seal the deal” have accelerated the deficit spending and the sham, in some ways openly fascist-through the conferring of too big to fail status on a few select players, financial non-reform bill to ensure that the system remains hamstrung. They’re not letting the crisis go to waste…

    We’ve gottenso far afield of Reagan’s intent when the tax reform act of 1986 was passed. Once again the loopholes have multiplied, to offset the monumental corporate tax increases, to the point where some of the largest firms pay no tax at all! I’m no social justice type, that’s for sure, nor a business hater of any kind; but there’s a problem whenever a company has a legitimate bottom line profit inside the US that is not subject to at least the taxes an individual would pay on the same sum.

    That’s why as a nation we desperately need tax reform along the lines that Paul Ryan proposes in his Roadmap; a flat tax that was based on income levels only, that would apply to businesses and individuals alike. Simple forms that wouldn’t reward non-performing activities like tax-shelters and deliberate losses, that are engaged in now to game the system.

    I could go on about QE2 also, but this is not the place to do it. Simply put, though, the reason there’s a credit problem is twofold; 1) people aren’t borrowing, but are deleveraging instead so demand is low, and 2) banks have so much “trash” on their balance sheets taht were previously considered valid assets that they have to cover that by seemingly hoarding reserves made available to them via TARP and QE1. Until they suck it up and write off that junk, we’ll se no serious growth in the financial sector; which was, you know, one of the “industries” the globalists told us would comfortably allow us to wave goodbye to traditional manufacturing.

  8. alppuccino says:

    I also teach a class in disjointed run-on sentence writing at the local community college.

  9. pdbuttons says:

    chritsiane amampour scares the shit outta me..
    i’m a kinda …manly dude with tough skills[ more or less]
    but i have nightmares about christiane amompour and
    find myself biting my pillow in the dark of the night
    worried sick!
    was that a knock on the door?…ssshhh
    really- was that a knock on the door?
    i’m calling the cops/ the national guard..and the marines[tho the marines never return my calls-semper-fi]
    maybe bjork will save me?cuz she likes me!

  10. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – The reason I say he’s not stupid is simply that you don’t get to be a president if you’re honestly bereft of any sort of satiate thought process. His problem isn’t an inability to think, his problem is indoctrinated thinking, coupled with a total lack of imagination, which is endemic in the hard Lefts base ideology.

    – As Jeff has pointed out in endless essays, the Left is after “assured outcomes”. Everyone wants assured outcomes, there’s nothing particularly unique or unusual about that aspiration. The problem is their ideology has the tail wagging the dog.

    – Socialism seeks to upend the usual process of wealth development, attempting to eliminate the competitive nature of the process, while ignoring the actual steps that it takes to develop said wealth. It can’t work in the reality of the nature of things, so it fails.

    – But you have to have a modicum of imagination, and be aware of the “free lunch” disease to be able to understand that and accept it.

    – Obama, and his gaggle, cannot do that, but that doesn’t make him stupid, just a victim of his closed minded pathologies, same as his following.

  11. pdbuttons says:

    u aint frankenstein baby-
    cuz u ain’t got bolts in ur neck

  12. Bob Reed says:

    Oh, and in case my last sentance is misconstrued as a paean to protectionists, think again. I often criticize the wanton globalists for choosing to counter big labor’s extortion of American business by assuring us we can essentially have a society of consumer oriented, and service, businesses based on the export of ideas and our robust financial sector. I’ve long thought that poppycock, and the current “malaise” due, in no small part, to the hamstrung financial sector vindicates that viewpoint a bit I think.

    But the US must remain the leader in free trade in the world. The actions of the Fed are already leading som enations to impose taxes on incoming foreign capital, Brazil being one. The slippery slope between this act and full on protectionism is a short one, especially when QE2 devalues US currency, effectively increasing the proce of imported goods while decreasing the price of US goods abroad.

    Becuase other central banks are loathe to debase with their currency values, with the exception of the Japanese, there is an increasing possibility of more protectionist actions as a response to the fed’s activity.

    So make no mistake, while I sneer at some of the tenets of the “globalists”, I am by no means a Buchananite protectionist, but the polar opposite…

  13. RTO Trainer says:

    The course into the ditch defined:

    “One of the key things here is a weaker dollar has traditionally not been inflationary because Asian exporters like to absorb the higher cost of doing business,” Merk said. “There comes a breaking point when Asian exporters can no longer absorb that higher cost of doing business. They’ll raise prices and guess what? They will stick.

    “So we will have a cost-push inflation. We’re going to get inflation but not where Bernanke wants to have it. We’re not going to get wages to go up. We’ll get the price at the gas pump to go up instead.”

  14. winston smith says:

    She went to the U of Rhode Island, but pretends it was Brown, I swear Amanpour must be Farsi for Couric

  15. pdbuttons says:

    if i ever hit the lottery
    i’d hire christiane amompour as my ‘head of security’
    or my head bodyguard
    cuz then i’d feel safe
    and could sleep
    perchance to dream?

  16. pdbuttons says:

    U of rhode island got a good basketball team
    fuck providence

  17. alppuccino says:

    Alright, then I’ll just stick to my original assessment: Obama’s an idiot.

    What is it based on?
    Aside from being unable to put three words together without a teleprompter?
    Or aside from having difficulty pronouncing basic English words, while staying up all night learning how to pronounce Pakistan?
    Or aside from not being able to pronounce the name of the ballpark where his favorite baseball team plays, of which he is unable to name even one player, and he does this all on national television?
    Or aside from the fact that he traveled all the way to Copenhagen to use his magical mystical powers of mind control to wrest the Olympics from the competition, only to be knocked out in the first round, again, all done on national television?
    Or aside from the fact that he said something to the effect of “Don’t worry about losing your job in 2010, like the Dems did in ’94. The difference in 2010 is you’ve got me.”?

    That’s an idiot right there.

    But I get your meaning BBH, I just don’t buy the fact that a man who cannot do anything other than read a teleprompter, can’t be elected president. It goes to the intelligence of the electorate and in a room with 3 idiots the genius is the one who is just a little less stupid than the other two.

  18. pdbuttons says:

    every village needs an idiot
    every court a jester

  19. LTC John says:

    pd is on a roll!

  20. Slartibartfast says:

    I heat my house with firewood which I acquire for only the cost of my own labor off of my property

    Wait…you’re saying that you don’t have a lawn to keep those kids off of?

  21. happyfeet says:

    Mr. al please to be turning yourself in at the nearest re-education facility

    Citing public health concerns in the heavily polluted Los Angeles Basin, the South Coast Air Quality Management District board voted unanimously to impose fines on homeowners who burn wood in fireplaces or at outdoor sites on high-pollution days during winter months — about two dozen days in a typical year.

    Builders will be prohibited from installing wood-burning fireplaces in new homes, and it will be illegal to install one when remodeling. Gas-burning fireplaces will be allowed.*

  22. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – Anything Berneke does will either have little or no effect or makes things worse.

    – It’s the same problem as the rest of the Beltway. They’re there, so they all feel compelled to do something.

    – The free market, economy, and industry will recover when the Socialists are no longer in a position of power. Period.

    – The success of the turn around will be directly coupled to how quickly we can return to an atmosphere of the government exists to serve the people, and taxation follows the rule of abortion, safe, legal, and rare.

  23. Bob Reed says:

    Amen BBH

  24. pdbuttons says:

    #19
    ur making me blush!
    thinking makes it so
    nothing in life became him like leaving it
    on the windy side, once more unto the breach
    one fell swoop

  25. alppuccino says:

    I eagerly await fine collectors.

  26. Big Bang Hunter says:

    Obama’s rein
    once more out on the branch
    one old saw
    one swell poop

  27. pdbuttons says:

    my red headed paper boy was a snotty bastard’
    snarly- a real shit head
    and i used to pay him with nickels!
    and he got all sour and shit
    nickels have their functions
    they do!

  28. alppuccino says:

    one swell poop

    And isn’t that all any of us is looking for?

  29. pdbuttons says:

    i’d count the nickels out to him slowly
    20 makes a buck-i’ll always tell him
    and he was all pouty as i counted off the bill
    but fuck him
    he never ever hit my porch..
    i don’t have newspapers anymore
    i’m all internet
    cuz frankly-not everyone can summarize the news

  30. Bob Reed says:

    Did you ever get that other thread up to 1000 pdbuttons?

  31. pdbuttons says:

    i went to- us festival- 3 days- a rock concert deal
    and we rented a motor home- 5 of us..
    and the poop shack got full..
    so all my friends are ‘what are we gonna do?’
    so i said-give me the keys
    and i took off down the road
    and i guess u gotta go to some waste station
    to get rid of ur poop..
    but i just went a half a mile down the road and..opened the spigots…
    on the side of the road
    and i didn’t get caught
    so i come back to my friends..
    and they were like=geez-that was fast!’
    and i’m all like- give me a malt liquor-i’m thirsty

  32. pdbuttons says:

    no- working on it- sometimes i try to get on it and my computer freezes
    lil train lil train..
    u think u can?

  33. pdbuttons says:

    hey bob reed-fighter pilot..
    i used to hang in the coaster saloon in san
    diego- and there were 4 fighter pilots who used to come in the bar and tear it up, on their downtime
    the only thing that was off-putting was they wore their jumpsuits! in the bar!
    yup i know ur a fighter pilot but tom cruise is a fag

  34. pdbuttons says:

    i get a bobby! bobby!

  35. pdbuttons says:

    yup- san diego- my buddy had a place near miramar- and we;d see jets take off and land
    and hear many sonic booms..
    it was cool!

  36. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – Yep. Because of the terrain and all the canyons/arroyas the afterburners shake things up.

  37. pdbuttons says:

    i was working in some wharehouse once
    and we went out to have a smoke
    and as we crossed the thresold
    two jets flew over- at like-low altiltude
    roar!
    and i dropped my cigarette and picked it up and looked up to see them jets
    but they were long gone..
    i still have a hard-on over that experience
    !
    roar roar roar!

  38. pdbuttons says:

    they were going like -600 mph
    and they made a big noise- a big big noise
    it made me shudder!
    and then i looked up
    and they were gone
    lickety split
    God bless America!

  39. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – Probably in August pb, around the time of the airshow. The Blue angels buzz all the populated area’s around the Kearney/Miramar/Mira Mesa area, flying at about 100 feet on full afterburners to gin up interest.

  40. happyfeet says:

    Finally, the creep of trade protectionism is anathema to pro-growth policies. The U.S. should signal to the world that it is ready to resume leadership on trade.

    Yahoo! says this is wrong wrong wrong.

    “The trade deficit figures make it clear that the Obama administration’s adherence to orthodox free trade thinking and conventional trade policy is sinking the chances for a sustainable recovery.”

    To reverse this trend, “draconian measures” like high tariffs on imported goods are necessary, he says. By “massively substituting domestically produced goods for good that we currently import,” the U.S. can revitalize its manufacturing sector, spurring job growth while reducing the trade deficit, Tonelson says.*

    whatever Yahoo piece of shit

    inflations all they ever wanted

    inflations shrink the debt away

  41. sdferr says:

    How long before it’s: “the U.S. can revitalize its manufacturing equestrian sector”?

  42. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – Yes, well, you can easily understand why they adhere to their idea’s, after all, look how well its worked up til now.

    (Insert definition of insanity here)

  43. pdbuttons says:

    my dad had a pilots liscence
    and he was always trying to get me to fly about with him think he flew a cessna
    and as much as i love my daddy- flying makes me nervous
    but i would definetly fly with a fighter pilot

  44. Bob Reed says:

    That Yahoo! guy is begging for Great Depression redux happyfeet; specifically by a rerun of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs.

    Bad ju-ju.

  45. pdbuttons says:

    naw- they werent blue angels
    just a couple of jets from miramar
    low..loud! and fast
    two of them side by side..
    so cool!

  46. pdbuttons says:

    they were so low!
    and like-20 feet off the ground
    and they were booking!
    and the best part was the timing
    as soon as i walked outta the building
    as soon as i crossed the threshold
    they came zooming over my head..
    and then they were gone..
    pinch me-i’m dreaming..
    pinch me…

  47. Old Texas Turkey says:

    Obama, and his gaggle, cannot do that, but that doesn’t make him stupid, just a victim of his closed minded pathologies, same as his following.

    What has Obama done that has made him look smart? Heck he’s said things about Free Trade with the Indians as that was what he had to say to get a swell vacation on the taxpayer’s dime. He could give a rats ass if there was any freeer trade enacted between the two nations in actuality.

  48. Bob Reed says:

    pdbuttons,
    It might be less unsettling to fly with your Dad than a ustabee fighter pilot; especially if the aircraft has an aerobatic rating!

    And you should give those Mirimar boys the benefit of the doubt for a couple of reasons. 1) Extra-curricular activities are an art amongst fighter pilots, especially of Naval pedigree, although, we generally wore our white’s in public, and 2)California’s a populous area, especially So-Cal, so it’s hard for a playah to find a place to play :)

    Us east-coaster used to go out over the Atlantic most of the time, although I’d visited Nevada on a couple of occasions for exercises as well as China Lake.

  49. happyfeet says:

    this seems to be the heart of their argument Mr. Bob

    Opponents insist that significant tariffs would increase international trade tensions. Experience, however, suggests otherwise.

    In 1971, President Richard Nixon set unilateral tariffs against Japan, Germany and other countries that refused to let their currencies rise in value. Far from setting off a trade war, the tariffs persuaded other countries to help rebalance the world economy cooperatively. There’s no reason the same thing couldn’t happen today.*

    here is a nicely put-together reply

    Indeed, we have a great modern day test case for Krugman’s awesome unilateral trade prescription in the recent 35% tariffs that the Obama administration imposed on Chinese tires under Section 421 of U.S. trade law. The results of those nasty tariffs were skyrocketing domestic tire prices (even with significant trade diversion) and severe supply shortages, with tire retailers and poor American consumers hardest hit. And Krugman wants to repeat and amplify these protectionist harms by applying similar tariffs to all $300 billion in Chinese imports? Unbelievable.

  50. Big Bang Hunter says:

    How long before it’s: “the U.S. can revitalize its manufacturing equestrian sector”?

    – Just as soon as we stop horsing around with Socialism.

  51. happyfeet says:

    but blah blah blah… this isn’t economics… this is a propaganda onslaught to make of free trade an albatross to string about Team R’s neck

  52. pdbuttons says:

    oh no- now in my old age i look back at them fighter pilots with the respect they deserve
    but they were arrogant bastards
    word

  53. sdferr says:

    heh, Boudreaux works in a reference to Debbie Does Dallas and the revival of Geocentrism.

  54. pdbuttons says:

    this ain’t rock’n’roll
    this is genocide!!

  55. Bob Reed says:

    When we used to fly at near-sonic speeds very low over the water you could sometimes see the pressure-wave impinging on the surface of the ocean, especially when it was relatively calm.

    But you had to be disciplined when watching the pass to catch it, because around the aircraft there was usually a dramatic vapor-condensing effects going on behind the shock cone that was forming.

    A lot of fun though, to give the airdales and deck apes something in appreciation of all their hard labor; our job, after all, was relatively cushy…

  56. LTC John says:

    Pilots would not have fared well trying to bust up any bar I hung out…. I was with rugby players, mostly, or Soldiers… lots of them….

  57. Old Texas Turkey says:

    How long before it’s: “the U.S. can revitalize its equestrian sector”?

    Isn’t that whats M’shelle is there for?

    Barump – dum-p, pishhhhhhhhh.

  58. pdbuttons says:

    they[fighter pilots]
    were short..
    so i don’t know if they got a ‘size’ thing issue..
    but a friend of mine used to heckle them-giving them shit
    i don’t know why-just guy stuff
    but then 2 years later he died in a sleddingt accident
    in conneticut
    weird?

  59. happyfeet says:

    I think one time a Kennedy skied into a tree with tragic results… also Liam Neeson’s wife. Sled accidents I’m not as familiar with.

  60. pdbuttons says:

    i think we were just jealous
    cuz fighter pilots are way cool jesus
    u lash out..u lash out into the wind
    u’ll probably get some pee spray in ur face

  61. happyfeet says:

    velocity + nature = splat

  62. winston smith says:

    I know that is raw undiluted stupidity, from Comandante Pablo,let’s try wage and price controls next

  63. Bob Reed says:

    So wait, these guys are advocating Nixonian trade and economic policies? I guess they’re smokin’ that really good medicinal grade stuff out in California.

    The economics of the early 70’s was not necessarily desireable, with respect to inflation, and the Chinese were nowhere near as well ensconsed in the export cat-bird seat as they are today; as your “tire” link demonstrates.

    Look, the US trade defecit with Japan was waaaaay out of hand when Reagan took office, and you’ll recall that he didn’t go all Smoot-Hawley on the Japanese, regardless of our struggling economy.

    Krugman is an academic who, like Bernanke, is theorizing based on the assumption that the money supply can safely be allowed to move toward infinity. Like other mathermatical ponderances of the infinite, it just doesn’t translate into the real world.

    Keynesianism was on shakey ground before the Obamites killed it. Krugman is using yesterdays weapons to fight today’s threats. He’s wrong. All QE2 will do is invite protectionist responses from some of our trading partners, ones that don’t appreciate us exporting inflation, as well as place a hardship on genuinely poor folks and the middle class by driving the prices of commodities up.

    They’re counting on people interpreting the stock market increase, and a concomitant rise in their 401(k) as meaning “happy days are here again!”, and resuming their spending binges. It’s not going to happen; folks will correctly see the higher prices at the store and pump as further impinging on their wealth, no matter what the effin’ casino-esque stock market does!

    That’s why this plan will fail…Is there a mechanism other than pitchforks whereby Bernanke can be impeached?

  64. pdbuttons says:

    i live next to a golf course[ google map it-furnace brook golf course!]
    so the first day we moved in here
    we took a tobaggan over there at night
    and i guess theres something called the ‘seven hills’
    so we go up in the dead of night
    jump on the tobaggan- and head down the hill
    down the seven hills
    well- we all got hurt-ran into a tree..
    fell off the tobaggon
    bit lips-blood in snow..
    it was fun!

  65. sdferr says:

    In May, he enlisted for Navy wings and that shut up most of the hecklers. Still, he was always in a stew of contempt for some joker who said something unfair. It seemed Ted courted the rage now, used it to bone his own fiber. Now there was no awkwardness, no blushing before he blew. It was automatic, a switch in his gut that snapped on and then, watch out for the Kid. One day in July, a fan in left was riding Ted pretty hard. Ted came to bat in the fifth: he took a strange stance and swung late, hit a line drive, but well foul into the left-field seats. Next pitch, again he swung late, hit another liner, but this stayed fair — and Ted didn’t run, barely made it to second. Cronin yanked him out of the game, fined him $250 for loafing. But Ted wasn’t loafing, the hit caught him by surprise. He’s been trying to kill the heckler with a line drive foul.

  66. pdbuttons says:

    the splendid splinter!

  67. Bob Reed says:

    “Busting up” bars is declasse and ungentlemanly; roguish and simian behavior generally not befitting an officer. Better to enjoy the cool drinks, hot gals, and spinning yarns telling sea stories.

    Not to say that there wasn’t good natured ribbing; being needled by one’s peers, and being able to give as good as one gets, is considered a necessary component of character-as much as never letting anyone see you “sweat”. All of which may explain the “cocky” behavior pdbuttons mentions.

    Which is not to say that there wasn’t inter-service rivalry, there was. But one didn’t generally allow it lead to an incident. Especially if there were rugby players involved :)

    Me? Instead of fighting with men, I generally preferred pursing the possibility of interacting with women; such interaction crudely being referred to by another “f” word…

  68. Frotus says:

    When we used to fly at near-sonic speeds very low over the water you could sometimes see the pressure-wave impinging on the surface of the ocean, especially when it was relatively calm.

    Sounds like when Michelle cuts a huge fart right before she sits on the twah-lay to take a wee wee.

  69. alppuccino says:

    That’s disrespectful.

  70. pdbuttons says:

    if anyone comes to boston
    mmm-go to the museum f fine arts
    then go to fenway park..
    cuz u put give ticket to the ticket guy
    and then go and buy ut popcorns-hot dogs and soda or beer..
    and then walk up the ramp- and see the beauty of the stadium
    ur breathe will stop
    fenway park is a mueseum!

  71. M'shelle says:

    Its true though, sometimes i toot one and it causes a small conical vortex that spashes cold water on my anus.

  72. Patrick Ewing says:

    You guys lay off my twin sis. If ya know whats good for you. I ain’t playin.

  73. LTC John says:

    #67 – I am with you, Bob – I left the crazy stuff to the other guys. I was there for women and beer.

  74. happyfeet says:

    the dirty socialist Associated Press propaganda series Teh New Normal continues… in Part 2 we learn

    The search for value is also helping sales at fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s. Driving some of the sales gains are wealthy Americans who are eating at such establishments more often than before the recession.

    New research from American Express found that the super-affluent, which it defines as those who put at least $7,000 a month on their credit cards, spent 24 percent more on fast-food last spring than the year before. They spent 12 percent more on fine dining.*

    oh. I see.

    Rich people are eating out more and America is just going to have to adjust.

    Thank you Associated Press for helping me with the understandings about the normal what is new.

  75. pdbuttons says:

    i like me some chickens-cuz there kinda fast food
    with there herky jerky-ness
    and cows- who are super fast

  76. newrouter says:

    oh my

    A staffer for a congressional Democrat who came up short on Tuesday reports that a team of about five people stopped by their offices this morning to talk about payroll, benefits, writing a résumé, and so forth, with staffers who are now job hunting.

    But one of the staffers was described as a “counselor” to help with the emotional aspect of the loss — and a section in the packet each staffer was given dealt with the stages of grief (for instance, Stage One being anger, and so on).

    “It was like it was about death,” the staffer said. “It was bizarre.” The staffer did say the portions about the benefits and résumé writing were instructive.

    link

  77. pdbuttons says:

    i went out with a marries woman-[i didn’t know she was married at the time! ]
    and her husband came into the bar and chased me aruondand it was kinda funny- cuz when he caught me he didn’t know what to do with me..
    and we both stepped outside
    for a fight? and shit..
    and he just raised his hand to smack me..
    but said ‘fuck=it’
    and slithered away
    i really didn’t know she was married
    at the time
    i am not a home-wrecker!

  78. pdbuttons says:

    i really didn’t know she was married
    frailty-thy name is women
    she lied to me!
    i’m the victim!

  79. happyfeet says:

    your link didn’t work Mr. router

  80. pdbuttons says:

    she was cute tho-
    and a liar!
    i really didn’t know she was married at the time..
    marraige-what is good for?
    absolutely nothing

  81. Old Texas Turkey says:

    Wealthy is defined as people who put at least $7000 a month on their credit cards?

    How about “Wealthy is defined as people who put $7000 a month on their credit cards and carry no balances at end of said month”

    Or “Wealthy is defined as people who issue credit cards that other broke ass mf’ers put $7000 on in one month and then proceed to minimum pay the bitch for the next 36 years”

  82. pdbuttons says:

    are pants around ur ankles still considered pants?
    or are thet shorts?
    their ain’t one way out baby
    and u ain’t heading out that door..

  83. bh says:

    From later in the piece:

    The Fed’s increased presence in the market for long-term Treasury securities poses nontrivial risks that bear watching. The prices assigned to Treasury securities—the risk-free rate—are the foundation from which the price of virtually every asset in the world is calculated. As the Fed’s balance sheet expands, it becomes more of a price maker than a price taker in the Treasury market. If market participants come to doubt these prices—or their reliance on these prices proves fleeting—risk premiums across asset classes and geographies could move unexpectedly.

    This is worth keeping in mind. Time for everyone to bone up on rNPV again.

  84. pdbuttons says:

    i wouldn’t fuck ur old lady..
    cuz thats not how i roll
    it’s wrong! damn wrong
    unless u pay me 20 or 30 bucks..and watched
    that might make it right

  85. Jim in KC says:

    This is PW, pdbuttons, not Craigslist…

  86. pdbuttons says:

    sorry- i denounce myself
    just trying to bring funny
    hope i didn’t offend anyone..

  87. happyfeet says:

    I thought it was an interesting examination of a moral dilemma

  88. newrouter says:

    link linked to #76

    link

  89. newrouter says:

    also

    From a letter being sent to the members of the incoming GOP freshman class tomorrow morning by Reps. Boehner and Cantor: “The incoming GOP freshman class for the 112th Congress is no ordinary freshman class, and this is no ordinary time for our nation. Accordingly, the incoming GOP freshman class will have a larger voice at the leadership table and on the Steering Committee than previous GOP freshman classes in previous Congresses.”

    Specifically, Boehner and Cantor will be giving the freshman class the right to elect a member to represent them at the leadership table, and giving the freshman class an additional seat on the powerful Steering Committee, which determines committee assignments and chairmanships. (The freshman class has traditionally had just one representative on the Steering Committee.)

    link

  90. pdbuttons says:

    i really apologize if i offended anybody
    with my mmm sex talky shit..
    i will send u a ‘picture’ apology if u want
    wink wink

  91. pdbuttons says:

    aww-just funnin!
    don’t get ur knickers in a twist
    but if u do-cut them off and send them to me at
    mr main
    100 main street
    mainetown
    maine..
    i will stop now

  92. Big Bang Hunter says:

    #76 – The spirit of ’76….

    – Every time a Prog discovers the real world, another Democrat gets his/her pink slip

    – Now you see why we were telling you not to pull that Socialist lever sport. Maybe all you genius young turks will listen next time, but I doubt it.

  93. guinsPen says:

    a sandwich concocted by the local beanery
    is coincidaptly named the peedee.
    it consists of overmustarded ham,
    layered thickly on a boston baked bun.

  94. happyfeet says:

    that sounds like a very tasty sammich Mr. guins

    speaking of tasty where is bh!!!??

    Villain! He’s been holding out on us.

    Cheese Fudge!

    scroll to the bottom…

    who knew?

    bh did that’s who!! And he didn’t tell nobody.

    I found it on accident cause see right above the cheese fudge?

    Dessert Cheese Balls. I saw these at Ralph’s the other day. They are a little spensive and I thought I’d go home and google first before committing.

    Sugar Brook has reinvented dessert. Our dessert balls are made with a combination of fresh cream cheese and butter cheese. We have incorporated many sweet treats such as chocolate chips, cherries, peanut butter, and pumpkin to create our unique flavors.

    I’m definitely intrigued especially about the pumpkin one. But I’m sort of in a not-eating tasty foozle place.

  95. Jim in KC says:

    Eh. I was just tweaking’ you a bit, pdbuttons. ;-)

  96. bh says:

    That can’t be real. Sounds terrible.

    Verona is in a nice area though. Go east for about half an hour and you hit one of my favorite lakes, Lake Waubesa. Used to water ski there when I was a kid. Go northeast for about half an hour and you hit another lake where Ann Althouse takes some photos at UW Madison. Go south for about 45 minutes and you can tour the New Glarus brewery and have a beer.

    These all sound better than cheese fudge which could only lead to constipation and diabetic foot loss.

  97. happyfeet says:

    there’s a reason God gave us two feet you know

  98. sdferr says:

    For to stand on one while ass-kicking with the other, no doubt.

  99. bh says:

    To better run wind sprints when internet people tempt us with assorted food stuffs, that’s why.

  100. newrouter says:

    we really should call them: : east german democrats” on a regular basis

    The German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR), informally called East Germany by the West, was the socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany and in the East Berlin portion of the Allied-occupied capital city.

    do wiki

  101. bh says:

    It’s funny how stuff sticks with you. When I was a kid, I saw this movie where Jackie Gleason shows his diabetic foot rotting off. Tom Hanks and I were very taken aback.

    I asked around afterward and a very trustworthy adult told me that sugar can indeed make your feet fall off. This was a disturbing discovery as it wasn’t just movie real it was real real and this is an important difference which we’re to remember when people tempt us with shooting guns and blowing up buildings and jumping things in our car and eating sugary foot poison.

  102. newrouter says:

    i mean during the commie years ain’t no better party than the east germans though to be fair albania was tops

  103. ThomasD says:

    Cheese Fudge!

    Last summer my oldest son took a culinary course, they made fudge using gouda. It was awesome.

  104. bh says:

    That sounded bad originally. Gouda makes it sound even worse.

    You peg-footers are a menace.

  105. bh says:

    I don’t understand food anymore. All these boundaries being crossed. Would you like some more green tea in your yogurt? Yes please, would you like some more vanilla infused cherries on your steak?

    When it works it’s great but again, I contend all these chefs are just stoners. My friend used to mix peanut butter and maple syrup for a toast spread and no one ever gave him a Michelin star.

  106. bh says:

    Harumph, I say curmudgeonly.

  107. JD says:

    6:51 from bh is a beautiful and true statement. Foie gras and Spam.

  108. guinsPen says:

    which is all washed down with
    their chicken spray spritzer.
    sweet.

  109. Abe Froman says:

    I’ll take the stoner combinations over the growing chef fetish for using disgusting animal parts. Though I imagine they’ll eventually merge in the form of pickled goat anus in a raspberry frog dick reduction.

  110. Jeff G. says:

    pickled goat anus in a raspberry frog dick reduction.

    Those flavors aren’t terribly complementary, frankly. To do it right, given the cited ingredients, you’d naturally want to curry the goat anus.

    Peasant.

  111. JD says:

    Sashimi is never bad.

  112. JD says:

    Curry inevitably gives you the Hershey squirts. Racist.

  113. happyfeet says:

    curry is the future

    it was on the tv

  114. ThomasD says:

    #111 – Try some sea squirt and then get back to me.

  115. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – Currying flavor? Haven’t we all had a belly full of that in politics already?

  116. John Bradley says:

    “Ain’t no party like an East German Party, ’cause an East German Party don’t stop!”

    ‘cept when it does.

  117. JD says:

    ThomasD – I actually think I tasted that once, and almost hurled. It was memorable. I thought it would be seared, seared into my brain, but my grey matter seems intent on blocking that out.

  118. Bob Reed says:

    Desert cheese-balls?

    I thought those were the folks that voted to re-elect Harry Reid last week…

    Or some middle-easterners.

  119. Bob Reed says:

    Oh. dessert not desert…

    Time for another drink!

  120. happyfeet says:

    now I almost have no choice but to try

  121. ThomasD says:

    Yeah JD, I’ve had a few other things that were memorable (one was some sort of miniature cockles covered in natural slime) but sea squirt tops them all. It is the closest thing to eating a smelling salt that I know of.

    And I’m not opposed to most innards, although I’ve never been able to face up to chitlins.

  122. JD says:

    Ate some stuff in a little village outside Saigon that I still do not know what it was. I do not want to know, blissfully unaware. Deep fried chicken claws were surprisingly good, once you get past the visuals.

  123. newrouter says:

    pit 17 cin 7: 2 q

  124. geoffb says:

    My friend used to mix peanut butter and maple syrup for a toast spread

    I always like mixing it with honey but now they bottle it that way. Then again I like jelly beans and sharp cheddar cheese together. I guess my food habits came from my stoner years.

  125. pdbuttons says:

    my favorite food combo is gravy…mixed with more gravy
    biscuits and gravy!
    i think i’ll start my diet-tomorrow-or maybe next week! tell ya-the first time i went down south and had ‘bicuits and gravy’- i didn’t what to do!

  126. pdbuttons says:

    not too much into grits tho
    but i like me some marisa tomeii!
    as i always tell my friends-today tomei
    and tomorrow…fuck it- tomei again

  127. pdbuttons says:

    #95
    man u can always tweak me! no harm ,no foul!
    just don’t show up at my door wanting to pummel me
    cuz i’m pummel shy

  128. pdbuttons says:

    i get a bobby orr-look at me
    don’t stare into the sun,son
    u might goe blind
    [snoopy dance]

  129. JD says:

    Fried biscuits and apple butter.

  130. RTO Trainer says:

    Pumpkin gooey butter cake. Just made one.

    half a pound of butter, a whole box of powdered sugar, and 4 eggs in it. Not exactly diet fare.

  131. guinsPen says:

    tomei,
    or not tomei.
    eh, hamlette?

  132. pdbuttons says:

    my friends a bartender and he told me
    that one night marisa tomeii came in with quentin tarantino and at closing time he kicked everybody out but them 2-and let them drink til dawn
    he said that she was on the phone all-night-crying
    i guess a boyfriend was breaking up with her
    but i’m stiil pissed off at my friend for not calling
    me and saying ‘guess who i got right here in my lil old bar?
    oscar winner marisa tomeii!]
    cuz i would’ve flew right down there!

  133. SDN says:

    JD, it may have been the Viet dish I saw in Atlanta: “BBQ Cow Uteri”. Just Said No.

  134. pdbuttons says:

    it makes me all frowny face to think of marisa tomeii
    crying on the phone!
    it’s just not right!

  135. pdbuttons says:

    i’d commit voter fraud if she ran for something [atomic dog catcher?]
    vote twice-once for the marissa
    and once for the tomeii!

  136. pdbuttons says:

    if i went to disneyland with marisa tomeii and
    we had a romantic moment
    and she asked me ‘ do u want to have kids?’
    i’d be all-fuck yeah i want kids- i got duct tape and some rope in the back of my van, but i can never get them close enough to snatch ’em!

    what i just said was really really wrong
    but i laughed while i typed it

  137. pdbuttons says:

    mmm-do i get a bobby orr or shall i serve time in internet jail
    for my last comment?
    off to the hoosegow with u!

  138. pdbuttons says:

    when i got arrested one time the cops took my shoelaces and the string around my favorite sweatpants
    and once u take the string out of ur sweatpants u can’t get them back in
    what? u think i’m gonna hang myself, coppers?
    u wish!

  139. pdbuttons says:

    they towed my car-to some impound place..
    and when i got out i went home
    got my spare key
    walked up to the impound place
    and got my van..
    they didn’t even have the paperwork on it..
    i couldve gotten away with it! not paying tow fees and such..
    but when i woke up the next day..i called them and settled up
    because my parents taught me to be honest!
    damn u ma and dad!

  140. guinsPen says:

    What was Sacramento?

    *applause*

    New Name State Capitols for $400 please, Art.

  141. happyfeet says:

    RTO that sounds extremely very tasty and festive

  142. geoffb says:

    Sacramemento for the new one?

  143. Art Fleming says:

    For those of you playing along at home, the $300 answer in the N N S Capitals category was, “It is now known as New Malaise.”

  144. pdbuttons says:

    i used to lve in a west Texas town called ‘new maliase’
    full of tumble weeds it was,,
    used to stagger lee around-lost-but with a purpose..
    and kept thinking to myself- in my coherent moments
    ‘thank god i’m not in georgia..”

  145. pdbuttons says:

    naw-just riffin
    i think georgia got them some fine peaches
    and a good college football team
    and i watched the invasion of iraq on live tv
    and when these 2 lt.s-captains rolled into bagdad and took
    over one of them mansions
    they turned to the camera and unfurlled a georgia college flag out and started barking
    who let the dogs out?

  146. pdbuttons says:

    a couple of georgia boys
    with tanks!
    yeah we just rolled thru ur country
    and now we’re gonna unfurl this flag
    asshole..in your mansion
    who let the dogs out?
    who? who?

  147. pdbuttons says:

    do i get a bobby orr?
    yes, yes i do

  148. pdbuttons says:

    i particully like the night bombings- war porn!
    i say we default on the chinese..
    what? u gonna fuck with our navy?
    boom shacka lacka boom
    boom

  149. pdbuttons says:

    i’m not a bully..
    i’ll help u cross the street-hold ur hand-sing u lullabies
    but i will put u down with extreme predijuse
    if u even think of fucking with me..
    oh- let me congratulate you on your world cup win!

  150. pdbuttons says:

    i particully like the f 117[ seventeens]
    cuz if i was a kid i’d be all steahthy- and jab u in the ass with a skewer
    and run away and u couldn’t catch me- cuz i was a kid and u were an old drunk..
    look at me! i’m dancing with the clouds!

  151. pdbuttons says:

    do i dare take another bobby orr
    i dare-i dare

  152. pdbuttons says:

    imagine two goergia tank commander- rolling thre ur country..
    taking u down, rolling up on ur soon to be ex-mansion
    unfurlig a georgia bulldog flag at the camera
    and barking!
    woof woof!
    thats why i kinda like georgia
    cuz of them two tank commanders
    they had style

  153. pdbuttons says:

    they were so happy! waving that georgia flag
    and barking!
    and u could see in the background that the mansion was captured and eveyone was safe
    hey- cnn-take a close-up!

  154. pdbuttons says:

    why did the two georgia tank commanders cross the street?
    they didn’t- the street crossed to them

  155. pdbuttons says:

    i love me some georgia bulldog tank dudes’
    and missisippi state
    and oklahoma
    i guess im just a southern belle
    i got me some vapors!

  156. pdbuttons says:

    ooh -i get a southern bobby orr’ but southern peoples got class
    and they’d offer him din-din
    first choice-
    and bobby would just grin-even though he’d be starving
    anbd say-‘thank u m’aam”
    and pass the goodies to the next person
    all humble and shit
    bobby orr is a god!
    way,way,way cool slider.,.
    he’d lend u 50 bvuxcks if u was a hurting
    mind ur pets if u had to go out of the house, on some ’emergecny’
    and hold ur grandma hand-and coo in her ear-as she was dieing in the hospital
    it aint a last gasp gramma-it’s just the breathe of-number $4
    boo orr

  157. pdbuttons says:

    now i’m getting silly and must recline..
    unless some one wants to play with me…

  158. Art Fleming says:

    And remember, folks, your answer must be given in the form of a question.

Comments are closed.