Defending the Ridiculous

[n2doc]

— By Kevin Drum| Sun Mar. 20, 2011 9:54 PM PDT
One of the most impressive accomplishments of the modern right is its ability to generate plausible technical papers to justify conservative tropes that are basically ridiculous. For example, during last year's campaign it was popular to claim that our economy was weak because of regulatory uncertainty. This made no real sense at all. Our economy is weak because of economic uncertainty: businesses don't have enough customers to make it worth investing in new capacity or hiring new workers, and they aren't sure when or if new customers will appear in the future. Unfortunately, that didn't make for very good campaign trail bashing. Republicans wanted to convince people that the economy was weak because President Obama and congressional Democrats kept passing onerous new regulations that had businesses scared to death, so that's the story they kept repeating ad nauseum.

It never really caught on outside of campaign stump speeches, though, because — well, because it was ridiculous. What to do? Answer: find someone to write a technical paper demonstrating that regulatory uncertainty really is holding back the economy. But who could they get for this job?

Paul Krugman provides the answer: none other than Alan Greenspan.

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http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/03/defending-ridiculous

[ErikJ]

1. Naughty children

Just think how much money BP could have saved if Cheney didnt ban the requirement for accoustic shut-off valves which only cost $500,000.
These corporations lobbying for less regulations are like children who cry about their parents rules that can potentially save their lives.

[Siouxmealso]

2. Obama helped with the meme

Remember when Obama scolded corporate America because they were supposedly sitting on trillions of dollars waiting for the right time to spend it?

His argument was, "Hey, I gave you all those tax cuts, now it's your turn, if not your obligation, to hire some people. Create some jobs already!" Their response was they are uncertain as to how the new health care law and other new regulations like cap and trade will affect their bottom line. So they're taking a wait and see attitude which is why their bank accounts keep growing but the unemployment rate shows no improvement.

In fact, I think Krugman wrote a column about this.

[whatchamacallit]

3. Can't wait for that wrinkled troll to join Milton Friedman in hell (nt)