Half A Good Article

On what stimulus spending means.

Look, stimulus spending can’t work, because of one of three things happens:

1. That extra spending means extra taxes which means the whole thing is a wash. (Government spending having some “multiplier” effect unknown to consumer or business spending is a big, fat lie.)

2. That extra spending means extra debt, which drives up interest rates, which chokes off growth.

3. That extra spending means extra money being printed, which means inflation which means any growth is illusory.

The rest of the article veers a bit off course, but these points remain solid. On NPR this morning, there was a discussion on the banks and how banks basically operate on "confidence," and that taking bailout money makes it seem as though the banks are bad or insolvent and therefore, some are reluctant to take it (even if they need it).

This got me thinking about confidence. I mean, this whole way of thinking about banking (or anything for that matter) is completely ridiculous. It should not be about "perception" or "confidence," it should be about results and clear books and transparency. Instead, we use terms like "confidence" and "perception" and then we act surprised when it turns out we were entrusting our money with "confidence" men.