Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Dr. Doom Dumps

Here is a video of Nouriel Roubini saying that the bad news in the economy will only get worse. I'm getting tired of this One Note Johnny. Sure he "called" this recession/depression, but as I listen to this I just don't buy his "it has to get worse, there is nothing to do to stop it, the glut will have to be worked off, prices have to fall another X%". I just don't buy it. I've never noticed a "glut". Everywhere I look people would like more and lots of people really need more. So where's the glut? It is a figment of an an economic model that reads like a morality play. People spent too freely, so now they must suffer. OK, some people spent freely, but we all must pay? That is nutty. And what is "too freely"? This all reads like Andrew Mellon with his famous quote:
Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, who felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself had only one formula: “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate.” He insisted that, when the people get an inflation brainstorm, the only way to get it out of their blood is to let it collapse. He held that even a panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: “It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people”...

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