The Atlantic offers a fascinating portrait of the Honorable Ron Paul in “The Tea Party’s Brain.” Its blurb neatly explains the subject’s significance: “One way to measure the surprising … rise of the Tea Party is to chart the relative position of Ron Paul, who has never flinched from his beliefs. He’s not alone anymore.”
But I want to focus not on writer Joshua Green’s take on Ron Paul but on Austrian economics — which Rep. Paul, almost alone in Washington, supports — and economic policy regarding crises:
The Austrian school … had fallen away after the Great Depression, which it claimed was caused by an expansion of the money supply and could be met only with chastened submission as the market corrected itself. Herbert Hoover’s Treasury secretary, Andrew Mellon, offered similar counsel, famously urging Hoover to “liquidate” and “purge the rottenness out of the system.” But this failed to stop the catastrophe.
From Green’s statement you would think that President Hoover had accepted Mellon’s advice. He had not. Hoover often took pride in the fact that he did all sorts of things to prevent prices from coming down — from “liquidating” — after 1929.
Green followed the above-quoted passage with a plug for strong, activist government to pry the economy out of crisis. In light of the facts? Not so persuasive.
A truth for Tea Party brains: The Great Depression featured a spendthrift, meddling Republican prez followed by an even more spendthrift, more meddlesome Democrat.
A pattern history now repeats.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
4 replies on “Brains in Crisis”
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Spending more than is in the budget,ie: more than your current income can support, is always heading into disaster. Our current spending spree by our government is NOT a solution to our problems. Families got themselves into problems through greed. They bought too big, too much and on credit. The government has been buying our influence around the world and spending as if there was no end to the money. Now, if we are smart, we learn from our mistakes and become a society that pays its bills on time and puts money in the bank.The government needs to encourage careful spending and prune back so it too can afford to survive. The real success of the past 50 years has been spurred by people who are wise with their money.
I kknow from experience the problems with over using credit cartds. I now pay them off as they come in-most of the ones I regularly use bill my bank directly and I get a paid bill from them each month.
when my wife died, I obviously had to take over the finances of what was left of the family (me) I have been amazed over the last six years how much she taught me‑I have no bills except for the thieves in DC and my rent‑I sold the house when she died and moved into an apartment. Wow! No maintenance, no cutting the damned grass, etc. I don’t even pay for water here.
My youngest girl has yet to learn the lessons I learned, mainly because she, like most demotrash, rarely listens to advice. She’ll learn.
Sure do wish the thieves ini DC would learn the lessons I have-they’re doing it the hard way(for us, the taxpayer) Hate to have to say it, but the Obamacrats are on the verge of destroying this great country.