To be fair, no one knows how this economy works. Especially economists.

Uh, isn't/wasn't he on the Senate Finance Committee?

Romney has a pretty good understanding of money and I think he's blowing smoke up the GOP base's ass on about 1/2 of the social issues he's changed his mind on since last year. He is the GOP front runner I dislike the least but that's mainly only because he has so much contempt for the Republican base he can't help but be the biggest liar running in their primary.

Huckabee's tax plan, a 23% 30% sales tax, is grossly ill-conceived and will not possibly work. On social issues he wants to amend the constitution to bring it more in line with the bible so be prepared for the inevitable ban on shrimp, mixed fabric clothing, and golden calves.

McCain's understanding of economics comes from an age when tying an onion to your belt was fashionable. On social issues (see: onion + belt)

milk_plus:
McCain's understanding of economics comes from an age when tying an onion to your belt was fashionable. On social issues (see: onion + belt)

He seems like a purple-onion kind of guy to me.

/though purple onions *are* the most fashionable.

absoluteparanoia: To be fair, no one knows how this economy works. Especially economists.

absoluteparanoia: To be fair, no one knows how this economy works.

This.

/Isn't it strange? The same people who laugh at gypsy fortune tellers take economists seriously.

how dare a politician admit to a lack of knowledge on a subject! i want my leader to make bold decisions regardless of how informed that decision may be.

/4 more years!

eh, worked for Bush

I for one welcome our Chinese Overlords.

/Hey, are you Chinese or Japanese?

The same people who laugh at gypsy fortune tellers take economists seriously

Good point.

Milton Fraudman would have disagreed but thankfully the evil ole bastard is dead now.

/"Capitalism and Freedom" has done more damage to this planet and claimed more victims than "Mein Kampf".

//Fark Godwin with a stick till he bleeds out.

sh0kr 11.1: /Hey, are you Chinese or Japanese?

Either way, they've got dirty knees.

The president isn't supposed to regulate the economy. In fact, the best thing he/she can do for the economy is to step back and take the tax burden off of businesses/ families.

sh0kr 11.1: I for one welcome our Chinese Overlords.

/Hey, are you Chinese or Japanese?

Aarontology: Either way, they've got dirty knees.

L Rook at these!

I dunno about McCain's continued viability as a candidate, but I like where this thread ended up.

/Hot asians for teh win

Ron Paul Revere: Anyone have a counter-argument?

Yeah. Ron Paul's understanding of economics is based on "might makes right".


"I'm the Ayatollah of the Laffer Curve!"

Ron Paul Revere: Anyone have a counter-argument?

I'd say it has less to do with loose monetary policy and more to do with overly-aggressive lenders that finally got burned. that led to a severe tightening of available credit which has sent ripples through the economy.

but regardless, i think the decision has been made that this thread will not be about ron paul, it will be about hot asians.

Ron Paul Revere: That lending practice was allowed by the Fed. Earlier this decade. ;)

i wasn't aware that the Fed regulated lending. i was under the impression that lenders incorrectly believed that home values were always going to rise and that the default rates of certain subprime groups was lower than they ended up being.

We need more economists that belong to the Austrian school (new window).

thomps: but regardless, i think the decision has been made that this thread will not be about ron paul, it will be about hot asians.

*crosses fingers*

Please be right.
Please be right.
Please be right.
Please be right.
Please be right.
Please be right.
Please be right.
Please be right.....

/lurves asian chicks

thomps:
but regardless, i think the decision has been made that this thread will not be about ron paul, it will be about hot asians.

Sir, even though I am a Ron Paul fanatic. I agree with this statement one billion percent.

I'm a conservative independent, and I want hot asians *now*

p.s. McCain is a doofus.

I like Huckabee's plan better. Does he have one? Does it involve praying?

thomps: I'd say it has less to do with loose monetary policy and more to do with overly-aggressive lenders that finally got burned. that led to a severe tightening of available credit which has sent ripples through the economy.

But you have to understand that the fed was lending money at less than inflation, plus printing as much as there was demand for. This means the fed was literally giving money away on the condition banks put it out to lenders. Lenders couldn't possibly loan that much money for just cars and businesses and whatnot, there was billions available for loans. Only good choice, pump the housing market and when everyone defaults sell the houses for the profit, all while selling the risk off to investors. Any bank that didn't get into this would have been laughed at.

Smitty, go read the article that's two up from this one, and then come back and tell me why I want a candidate who thinks they understand the economy at all.

/it's called "the invisible hand of the market" for a reason

McCain has no idea how the economy works but he thinks it's okay to dump trillions of dollars into Iraq for 100 years if need be.

thomps: how dare a politician admit to a lack of knowledge on a subject! i want my leader to make bold decisions regardless of how informed that decision may be.

/4 more years!

vote for me i know farkin everything

shut up i'm not telling YOU

FWIW, its pretty obvious that the only ones who do are Romney the CEO and Ron Paul a little bit. At least McCain will admit it, he wont act like he knows whats going on as president and would let the economic scholars figure it out for him.

RecallAllRepublikkkans: We really need more economists that belong to the Keynesian school. FDR and the Keynesian saved us from the Great Depression and yet people still fall for the same tired "government is inefficient" crap we always get

WIN!

People need to wrap their wee heads around a very simple concept. That extremist economic systems are doomed to failure. The command style economy of the ole evil soviet empire where the state controlled (or tried to) every last thing and where everything was nationalised was a total failure over time.

The Friedman-esque libertarian view with it's "invisible hand of the market" solving everything is equally ludacrous. Everything is de-regulated? Nothing remains in the hands of the country it resides in? More and more power resides in less and less hands? Farkin' madness is that. For profit health care? For profit prisons? For profit ARMIES? WTF?!

One doesn't have to be a trained economist to see the absolute insanity of this approach.

Free Markets cost too much.

See: The Southern Cone, South Africa, Poland, Russia, China et al

/The Von Mises folk are nuttier than Ron Paul on acid.

Suicidal Writer: We need more economists that belong to the Austrian school (new window).

You know who else was a whiz with economics and went to an Austrian school?

adding "economics" to the list of things McCain does not understand