5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Analysis of Modern Macroeconomics....for anyone, May 10, 2009
By
Tungsten Silicide "WSix" (Eugene, OR USA) - See all my reviewsThis book is very unique and highly recommended. John Hively predicts the economic meltdown of 2008 all the way back in the spring of 2006, when this book was originally published. John Hively has done a great job presenting a plausible analysis of modern american economic history in layman's terms. The only thing missing are charts and data tables - maybe a couple photos would be nice as well. Mr Hively's chief assertion in this book is that the incessant drive for increasing corporate dividends is what sends America into recessions / depressions. When dividends rise faster than profits, CEOs begin to cut spending and slash jobs - which actually causes recessions due to weakened demand. Lost wages are thus transformed into corporate profits, which are then spit out as dividends. His arguments are very compelling. Mr Hively's visions for a future free from corporations are a bit northwest-idealist unrealistic, but they take up so little of the book that I wasn't even annoyed. Nonetheless, he makes a very valid point that limited liability corporations are bad for the common man in many ways. This is the best book I've read for many years. More exciting than 'the Stranger', more useful than 'the Prince', more insightful than Freud and Nietzche combined (well...). This book is the 'Origin of Species' of modern macroeconomics. Buy it!!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Hope and the Obama Scheme
Every economic downturn has its brief moments of glory; those times on the downsize when new government economic data is released that shows something positive. And each kernal of good news in the midst of unmitigated disaster is treated by the government and the news media as a golden nugget of opportunity to support the conservative and liberal economic conviction that the calamity is caused by mass depression among the populace. And so members of the Obama administration and their sychophants in the news media have touted a few nuggets of gold amidst a mile high heap of economic cow dung and are now telling us good times are right around the corner. They're figuring the absolute cure for the recession is a golden nugget of bullshit.
It may take a couple of years, but as the next election cycle approaches, Herr Obama, the master of the silver tongue of hope, will come to the conclusion that his cure for mass distemper will have relieved the unemployed of their desperation for life's little pleasure (like jobs); but his cure will likely have resulted in rising unemployment and a tendency among the underlying population to blame the president for the economic madness that has scuttled their hopes and dreams. It's possible the economy will come out of this funk, but if it does, the unemployment rate will remain stubbornly high. So whatever he outcome he faces two years from now , Obama will have no choice but to decide to change course in order to become reelectable.
He'll need to figure out that being the next Herbert Hoover isn't helping, that his remedy of hope for hopelessness is stupid, so he'll mosey over to the political left, just a little, but not enough to help with his re-election campaign. At some point, he'll need to become the next Roosevelt, but the odds are when he decides to become a great president, rather than hover just above George W. Bush on the all time lists, he'll be too little and too late.
That's when he'll discover that conveying to the mass of citizens a nugget of hope is not a cure for a recession.
It may take a couple of years, but as the next election cycle approaches, Herr Obama, the master of the silver tongue of hope, will come to the conclusion that his cure for mass distemper will have relieved the unemployed of their desperation for life's little pleasure (like jobs); but his cure will likely have resulted in rising unemployment and a tendency among the underlying population to blame the president for the economic madness that has scuttled their hopes and dreams. It's possible the economy will come out of this funk, but if it does, the unemployment rate will remain stubbornly high. So whatever he outcome he faces two years from now , Obama will have no choice but to decide to change course in order to become reelectable.
He'll need to figure out that being the next Herbert Hoover isn't helping, that his remedy of hope for hopelessness is stupid, so he'll mosey over to the political left, just a little, but not enough to help with his re-election campaign. At some point, he'll need to become the next Roosevelt, but the odds are when he decides to become a great president, rather than hover just above George W. Bush on the all time lists, he'll be too little and too late.
That's when he'll discover that conveying to the mass of citizens a nugget of hope is not a cure for a recession.
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