Kenneth LeFebvre's List: The Great Depression of 2009

• Santelli has   walked straight into a trap, one I daresay Obama aides David Axelrod   and Rahm Emanuel cleverly set.
• That’s   pretty hard to respond to – unless you actually opposed the   Wall Street bailouts, thus proving your laissez-faire bona fides.
• Where   are the YouTubes of him calling for a taxpayer revolt when the banks   were getting bailed out?
• And so, Santelli   finds himself boxed in – billions for bankers, but not one   cent for homeowners.
• That’s   exactly how the White House planned it.
• The banksters got theirs first. Anyone who then   turned around and opposed help for “the little people”   without having first opposed help for the big boyz could be portrayed   as cruel and heartless.

4 more annotations...

• "An   Ignorant but entertained populace is especially dangerous in a   democracy, where the ignorant majority, basing their votes on   30-second TV commercials, can outvote the educated minority."
• These are the people who cannot understand the   far-reaching and extremely dangerous implications of electing   a foreign national as a president, in direct violation of the   Constitution. These are the people who proponents of socialism/communism   prefer to shackle, smooze, and use.

  • Poetic justice is harsh.
  Add Sticky Note
• Because this   population – of knowledge and skill deprived /compromised individuals   – forms the voting base for the Democratic party, I predict that   there will be few, if any, stimulus dollars allotted to pay for   skilled teachers working in well-planned remedial programs, for   uneducated school leavers, of any age!

  • Why would they want to actually educate their voting base?
  Add Sticky Note
• I, for one,   am very angry that I am expected to financially support an extremely   faulty public school system, only to then financially support   the millions of individuals that the system fails.
• In   addition, every one of them should fully understand both their   Rights, as well as their Responsibilities, as citizens of America.

  • Isn't the very excuse for public education, that a free democracy requires the populace to be educated in their rights?
    
    Of course, the excuses are very seldom the same as the agendas of any power-hungry movement, and in fact, are most often the antithesis.
  Add Sticky Note
• I believe   that such schools would be successful because human beings are   not content, and rapidly lose self-esteem, when they are ineffective   in life.

  • I have a theory that the rise in drug abuse, suicide, and depression, is directly related to the overwhelming sense of helplessness that Americans feel because they are trained to believe someone else (usually the government) holds the keys to their success or failure and there's nothing they can do to help themselves.
  Add Sticky Note
• "How many   people do you know who, when asked what they wanted to be when   they grew up, answered that they wanted to be lousy parents; criminal;   illiterates; or maybe an ignorant employee?"
• Children   want to grow up to be something, but too often schools undermine   and/or thwart their goals.

6 more annotations...

• is working on a plan to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term
• The bottom line, said an administration official Saturday, is to halve the federal deficit to $533 billion by the time his first term ends in 2013.
• the deficit will be shrunk by scaling back Iraq war spending, ending the temporary tax breaks enacted by the Bush administration for those making $250,000 or more a year, and streamlining government.
• "I don't think raising taxes is a great idea,"
• "And when our good friends on the other side of the aisle say raising the taxes on the wealthy, what they're really talking about is small business."

  • After all, Big Corporations are "too big to fail." The only other rich people to tax are politicians and small business owners. You can bet that politicians won't tax politicians, so the only victims left are small business owners.
  Add Sticky Note
• establishing universal health care
• lessening the country's reliance on foreign oil.
• But he also has said economic recovery must come first.

  • Somehow "universal healthcare" gets prioritized as "economic recovery" above "deficit reduction."
  Add Sticky Note

6 more annotations...

• Much of the debate turned, unfortunately, on how much "pork" was in the bill.
• unless we're looking to be hired by the Titanic's Department of Deck Chair Rearrangement, we're missing the point with arguments like this.
• The primary fallacy of the tooth-fairy economics at the heart of the stimulus is the very idea that economic health is the product of government spending
• Whatever government spends the money on is necessarily arbitrary -- government lacks the profit-and-loss feedback mechanism that keeps the private sector from squandering resources and employing factors of production in ways that do not cater to consumer wants.
• it makes no difference to government whether or not people actually want or wind up using the things it produces.
• pro-stimulus thinkers show remarkably little curiosity about why the so-called idle resources are idle in the first place.
• We should not want to "stimulate" an economy based on debt and overconsumption back into existence. We should want to restructure it along sustainable lines.
• For instance, we're now learning that Starbucks, at least in its one-store-every-ten-feet business model, was a bubble activity. With the housing bubble having burst, people now have a more accurate estimate of their real level of wealth. They're now less likely to buy a $5 cup of coffee -- or, in the case of the ailing Cold Stone Creamery, spend $6 for an ice cream cone. These are resources that need to be freed up so business firms carrying out genuine, non-bubble activities can be strengthened and the recovery accelerated.
• n his recent press conference, President Obama cited the case of Japan as if it were evidence for his side of the argument. Exactly the opposite is true.
• Oh? Thanks to the misnamed "stimulus" packages that the Japanese government imposed on its hapless people, Japan is the most indebted country in the developed world. So becoming the most indebted country in the developed world -- and that's saying something -- still isn't enough spending for Keynesians?
• If there's one silver lining to the crisis, it's that more and more people are figuring out that so-called respectable opinion has been dead wrong, and for a long time.

9 more annotations...

• The problem now is that the magnitude of the breakdown internationally is beyond the power of pork to solve. The European banks have lost $25 trillion. Think about this. That means losing $1 billion 25,000 times. It is inconceivable.
• What happens to the world's economy if Europe crashes into true bankruptcy? Or adopts mass inflation?
• What will a trillion dollars of new Federal debt per year do to restore the economy?
• They will not change their tune. The tune was written in 1936. They will call for more spending, more bailouts. They have not learned their lesson. Neither have voters.
• The economy will crater in 2010. This slowdown is a warm-up.

3 more annotations...

• The disposition   of politicians is to react to perceived problems rather than to   solve them.
• Without a clue   as to what has caused today’s malaise, politicians move into panic   mode and sign on to "solutions" which can lead only to   greater economic hardships ahead.
• What is ignored   throughout all this political posturing has been the core cause   of today’s financial difficulties. The singular cause has been   the manipulation of interest rates and expansion of fiat money by   the Federal Reserve Bank.
• Virtually   every financial problem being realized today, from declining productive   activity to forced liquidation of over-extended debts, can be causally   connected to the earlier monetary and credit manipulations of the   Federal Reserve Bank.
• Is there any   solution to today’s economic problems? Of course, but it won’t happen.
• The restoration of future economic prosperity requires that past   mal-investments be corrected, that over-extended debt burdens be   reduced with greater savings, and perhaps most essential of all,   the burden of government (both from taxation and edicts) on productive   activity be lifted.
• Meanwhile, what remains of viable   industry is being steadily undermined by new government edicts and   future tax burdens to pay for the bailouts and loans made to the   losers of today!
• Without an awakening to the central bank’s role which has   caused today’s economic crisis, and addressing that harmful issue,   there is little reason for future optimism.
• Government will survive only until its   exorbitant spending, confiscatory taxing, regulatory edicts, and   inflationary policies ultimately drag the economy into a devastating   social and economic quagmire. Thereafter the financial collapse   of government itself is assured.

7 more annotations...

• There is rather widespread   fear that gold will have a difficult time making much more headway   soon. However, the more that I have studied the gold market, the   more I have become long-term bullish.
• Gold at current prices that   now seem high will eventually look cheap at these prices, I believe   at this time.
• In the event of a dollar   meltdown, the price would go to infinity in terms of dollars.
• Inflationists are at   the helm everywhere one looks: in the government, in the FED, among   economists, and in the press. Seldom is opinion so one-sided, and   one-sided opinion is often wrong.
• The chances of a general loss in confidence in government   are rising as the authorities flounder around trying to solve the   economic problems while making them worse.
• The banking system is insolvent. It is broken. The Wall Street   investment-banking model is shattered. Throughout the world, the   largest banks are basket cases. This system is finished.
• The main specific   risk in gold, as I see it, is that the government will suddenly   steel itself and resolve the banking problems by nationalizing them   and taking their bad assets away. There is almost no other way out   for the powers-that-be to preserve their power and the current system.
• The main general risk is that the economic situation will   stabilize and improve, but governments seem intent on not allowing   that to occur.
• estimates of the total amount of above-ground gold range   from about 108,000 to 140,000 tonnes.
• The amount of gold per person   in the world is a tiny number, less than 1 ounce per person.
• The flight   from paper assets into gold is at an early stage. The vast majority   of investors, large and small, do not own gold.
• If any great   number of people attempt to hedge their future income by using gold,   the price will soar.
• I conclude that an estimate of $750 an ounce for the total production   cost of gold is not unreasonable.
• This price   provides something of a floor for gold. If gold were to fall below   this price for any extended length of time, gold producers would   slow production down or even halt it. That would reduce the supply   coming to market and tend to stabilize the price.
• One has to be ready to change one’s mind if the situation   changes.

13 more annotations...

• But the ugly truth about the Obama stimulus plan is that the average American had to take it on the chin in order for the stimulus package to pass.
• This is NOT a stimulus package
• It’s typical politics - nothing has changed in Washington - and probably never will.

1 more annotation...

• The excellence of this faculty lay, not so much in   propounding a particular point of view as such, but in providing   an immersion into intellectual challenge.
• Don wrote little.   He conversed much.
• In one course,   Professor Martin J. Bailey had us writing Constitutions so as to   overcome problems with our own.
• "higher income and business   taxes generally discourage effort and investments and result in   a larger social burden than the actual level of the tax revenue   needed to finance the greater debt."
• It is not only that effort and investment are discouraged,   it is also that the government spending misdirects effort and investment
• Workers waste their time and   effort getting on-the-job training in skills that are not in demand.
• These mal-investments   burden the economy until they are liquidated or re-directed, and   that produces recession, with another set of costs.
• While all that   is happening, consumer wants go unmet when government spending pours   into projects that are ill-advised. These are further costs.
• Any government that acts as an ex post insurer against economic   problems (even of its own creating) induces people to expect bailouts   in the future. They rearrange their lives accordingly, becoming   more dependent on government.
• They also learn to use the power of   government to take from others
• First of all, there is no empirical cost-benefit test,   stringent or otherwise, that can be done. It can’t be done because   there is no way to measure all the costs when the public must pay   taxes
• There is also no way to measure benefits when some people   gain and others lose. There are no objective measures of such values,   and there are no markets in government goods that provide such measures.
• Government coercion is never   warranted, not only because force is bad, but also because most   people think and agree that force is bad at the personal level.
• Government coercion undermines an essential aspect of society’s   social capital, which is the distinction between right and wrong   that most people in the society believe in.
• Most people do not believe   in using force against others personally. When their government   does this, society starts to becomes unglued as the distinction   between right and wrong is officially erased.
• government programs tend to survive once they are   put in place; very rarely are they cut back.
• Government product (spending) is not equivalent to private spending.   The two differ fundamentally. Government spending arises from violent   intervention into private exchanges, whereas private (non-criminal)   exchanges are peaceful.
• Dollars spent by government are not in any   sense economic substitutes for dollars spent privately. The latter   lead to improvements in utility of all persons who exchange, while   the former leave some persons better off at the expense of others   who are worse off.
• violent government intervention   leaves society generally worse off because the government’s violent   intervention breaks down the rule of law that is written in people’s   hearts.

  • This results in a never-ending spiral to collapse. Evidence that human legislation will always fail in the long run.
  Add Sticky Note
• GDP is part   of Washington’s smoke, mirrors, speech-making, and hand-waving.   It presents the (false) appearance that the economy is a manageable   entity that Washington manages for the good of the public. Beneath   the hand-waving and hoopla, the tawdry game of money transfer plays   on.
• I have read that the stimulus bill commits more funds to education   than the sum of the past ten years. Whatever the figure is, it is   too big by its total amount. The government cannot produce high-quality   education any better than it can maintain levees or bring aid to   the inhabitants of New Orleans.

19 more annotations...

• President Obama   is under the impression that history owes him $1 trillion right   now to spend on whatever he wants.
• The arrogance   reminds me of George Bush after 9-11, who similarly believed that   history owed him a gargantuan war in the tradition of FDR.
• It just goes   to show you that the presidency is something like a drug.
• It makes   people lose all connection to reality.

  • Sounds a lot like Hollywood, too!
  Add Sticky Note
• He needs to   stop basing his policies on dumbed-down civics texts versions of   events and consider the economic logic.

  • Politicians are smart enough to know that the public isn't educated enough to understand economic theories, and stupid enough to think the public won't recognize bad economic policies.
  Add Sticky Note
• With his rhetoric   and policies, he has decided to demonize private enterprise, just   as FDR did, as a way to present government as the great savior.
• If there is a way out of the recession, it   will have to be provided by private enterprise.

  • No lasting solution EVER comes from any government.
  Add Sticky Note
• You cannot   make a country rich by looting taxpayers and paying people to pound   nails into siding at public schools!
• it is not   a matter of ideology as to whether such public projects will make   us all wealthier. They will not. They drain the sources of wealth   from society. They represent a cost, not a blessing.
• That was also   true of Bush’s dumb stimulus program. He was only bailing out his   friends at our expense. The effect was to give a little longer life   to institutions that were failing anyway.
• Well, Obama   is doing the same thing, though rewarding a different set of friends.
• We had an outgoing president who thought it   was his right to grab as much as he could while leaving. Now we   have a new president who thinks that the election entitled him to   grab as much as he can, right from the beginning.
• It all amounts to one massive war   on prosperity and freedom.

  • It is a deliberate attack on our individual liberties, in order to prevent us from opposing their designs upon our wealth.
  Add Sticky Note
• The biggest   threat facing the American economy right now is rarely even discussed.   It is the massive buildup of paper bank reserves in the last quarter   of 2008.
• Fortunately for us, the banks are still holding on to these   reserves. When they start lending again, the result could be hyperinflation   of Confederate dollar proportions.
• This was Bush’s doing. He ordered the Fed to print like   mad.
• If he acts now, he could find that recovery will come   before his second term. This is precisely what happened with Reagan.
• In any case,   the hardest work to do here is intellectual. Obama’s head is filled   with myths and lies, not only about FDR and the New Deal, but also   about the government’s power to repair the existing economic problems.   With this model in his head, he can only do evil. This must change.
• Nothing is   inevitable.

17 more annotations...

• Congress has   proven lately that it knows no limits for its deficit spending,   and this year has already turned a record $1.2 trillion deficit   projection for fiscal 2009 into what will be rounded up to a $2   trillion deficit (actual probably about $1.8 trillion).
• That kind of   borrowing is sinking our country, and it’s got to stop.
• So naturally they argue   that the something we must do is pass "stimulus" bills   that would accelerate precisely the same easy credit and wild deficit   spending policies that created the recession in the first place.
• They’re digging   us deeper and deeper into a hole.
• As we accelerate   down the deficit path, eventually the international markets will   stop buying our bad debt. And we will be saddled with a crushing   debt burden.
• But if we can   force that day of reckoning to occur earlier, the nation will be   saddled with less debt on that day of reckoning. And we’ll be on   the path to recovery sooner.
• And it’s going   to happen eventually anyway. All we need to do is to give them a   little push to make it happen earlier.
• • Don’t buy   U.S. savings bonds.
   
  • Don’t buy   U.S. treasury bills.
   
  • Sell any   federal securities you have.
   
  • Move all   your investments in mutual funds away from federal securities.
• And when they begin to genuinely   fear this movement, they’ll call us unpatriotic. But if you really   love this country, you’ll relish such insults from the same people   who are spending us into serfdom.
• accusations of poor patriotism are   poor arguments for sound investments.

8 more annotations...

• But to improve   the situation, you must first have a solid grasp of how we got here.
• Government policies and central planning created the housing bubble,   now going bust.
• the   best cure for a recession is a recession
• Government should stick to punishing   fraud and enforcing contracts.
• If Congress   really wanted to do something helpful, it would cut taxes. Ideally,   we would repeal the income tax altogether and get the IRS off the   economy’s back, which would be a huge boon.
• We should also   cut spending.
• The cost of   our empire is bringing us to our knees, just as the Soviets’   empire did to them.
• The plans   being bandied about Washington are just more of the same.

6 more annotations...

• The New Deal is widely perceived to have ended the Great Depression, and this has led many to support a "new" New Deal to address the current crisis. But the facts do not support the perception that FDR's policies shortened the Depression, or that similar policies will pull our nation out of its current economic downturn.
• The goal of the New Deal was to get Americans back to work. But the New Deal didn't restore employment. In fact, there was even less work on average during the New Deal than before FDR took office.
• So what stopped a blockbuster recovery from ever starting? The New Deal.
• All told, these antimarket policies choked off powerful recovery forces that would have plausibly returned the economy back to trend by the mid-1930s.
• And while the artificially high wages created by the NIRA benefited the few that were fortunate to have a job in those industries, they significantly depressed production and employment, as the growth in wage costs far exceeded productivity growth.
• These policies continued even after the NIRA was declared unconstitutional in 1935.
• In a 1938 speech, FDR acknowledged that the American economy had become a "concealed cartel system like Europe," which led the Justice Department to reinitiate antitrust prosecution.
• The main lesson we have learned from the New Deal is that wholesale government intervention can -- and does -- deliver the most unintended of consequences.
• Tax reform that broadens rather than narrows the tax base and that increases incentives to work, save and invest is also needed.
• A large fiscal stimulus plan that doesn't directly address the specific impediments that our economy faces is unlikely to achieve either the country's short-term or long-term goals.

8 more annotations...

• Hey Feds, here’s   a free policy recommendation to help fix the economy: enact a three   to four year program permitting people to prepay their debts with   pretax dollars that would otherwise be used to make their tax-exempt   401(k) contributions.
• Americans need   to shed debt, not begin borrowing even more. Instead of "stimulating"   us to keep borrowing to buy buy buy, how about "stimulating"   us to improve our personal balance sheets by eliminating debt so   we have a future in which we can live live live?

• To say that   we are in uncharted waters does not begin to get across the idea   of the magnitude of our current situation.
• The crew has   handed out life jackets, but has told us that we don't have to put   them on yet. But they have put on theirs.
• This increase   in lending to banks was accomplished by an increase in the Federal   Reserve's adjusted monetary base from $850 billion (2007) to $1.8   trillion.
• The intricate   route through the rapids to Conventional Creek – assuming Conventional   Creek actually exists – involves trusting commercial bankers   not to do what bankers have always done: lend every dime the banks   can get their hands on. Banks make money by making loans.
• To sit on unused reserves is to avoid getting   paid. Bankers enjoy getting paid. They fear not getting paid.
• For as long as depositors demand a rate of interest above 90-day   T-bills, banks have a major cash flow problem. More money is going   out the door in interest than is coming in from T-bills and reserves   at the FED. "What's a banker to do?"
• So, for every   dollar that a bank keeps at the FED or in T-bills, it is losing   money.
• What is the   incentive for banks to lose money? Only this: the terror of losing   even more money.
• The bankers   have now run out of profitable options. They must accept one of   these painful alternatives.
• The people who Americans paid to manage their money misinvested   hundreds of billions and – it may turn out – close to   $4 trillion during Greenspan's bubble and the carry-over under Bernanke's   attempted slowing of the monetary base, 2006–2007.
• Now these   same people, in shell shock because of what the market has done   to their investments, are paralyzed in fear.
• So, why are the ex-genius stock   fund managers any better informed now than then?
• American banking   is now nationalized. Congress is in a position to force banks to   lend. "No loans, no more bailout money." Before we go over Deflation   Falls, Congress will do just that.

• I am talking   about someone who thinks the 1930's are coming back. Bernanke described   this scenario: "massive financial problems, including defaults,   bankruptcies, and bank failures, were endemic in America's worst   encounter with deflation, in the years 1930-33 – a period in   which (as I mentioned) the U.S. price level fell about 10 percent   per year."  

  I make the   following prediction: this is not going to happen.
• We are headed   for the falls. Inflation Falls.

• Dollar falls.    

  Gold rises.

  • Are you buying gold?
  Add Sticky Note

14 more annotations...

• So, you want   to know how bad this crash will get.
• Yet we are in only the early stage   of the crash. The   British banking system is close to collapse. There is serious   talk at the highest levels of the nationalization of all British   banks. The currency markets are acting as though this is likely.
• He said that he has estimated U.S. capital losses of $3.6   trillion, half at banks and broker-dealers. The total capitalization   of U.S. banks is $1.4 trillion. In short, he said, the American   banking system is bordering on insolvency.
• If your local   bank is still taking deposits, then it is still lending.
• Americans   are finally beginning to save.
• When people   save, they turn money over to a bank or to an investment fund that   deposits the money in a bank. The money saved does not go under   the mattress. It gets spent.
• There   is only one form of saving that is deflationary. You go to your   bank, withdraw currency, and hide it under a mattress
• If you are   employed by a company that sells discretionary products or services,   you are in trouble.
• If you work   for a restaurant, you are in trouble.

7 more annotations...

• Barack Obama has spoken often of sacrifice.
• But apart from a stirring call for volunteerism in his inaugural address, the  only specific sacrifices the president has outlined thus far include lower  taxes, millions of federally funded jobs, expanded corporate bailouts, and  direct stimulus checks to consumers. Could this be described as sacrificial?
• What he might have said was that the nations funding the majority of America's  public debt -- most notably the Chinese, Japanese and the Saudis -- need to be  prepared to sacrifice.
• These creditor nations, who already own trillions of dollars of U.S. government  debt, are the only entities capable of underwriting the spending that Mr. Obama  envisions and that U.S. citizens demand.
• These nations, in other words, must never use the money  to buy other assets or   fund domestic  spending initiatives for their own people.

  • Once again, the United States demonstrates our arrogance by using the rest of the world to fund our own excesses.
  Add Sticky Note
• But just because the game has lasted thus far does not mean that they will  continue playing it indefinitely.
• The root problem is not that America may have difficulty borrowing enough from  abroad to maintain our GDP, but that our economy was too large in the first  place.

  • Everything about the United States is too large. If we had remained a confederation of smaller, independent States, we wouldn't have nearly as many problems of scale as we do, today.
  Add Sticky Note
• Neither the left nor the right of the American political spectrum has shown any  willingness to tolerate such a contraction.
• It is also clear from the political chatter that the policies most favored will  be those that encourage rapid consumer spending, not lasting or sustainable  economic change. So when the effects of this stimulus dissipate, the same  unbalanced economy will remain -- only now with a far higher debt load.
• We are planning to spend as much as we like, for as long as we like, and we will  let the rest of the world pick up the tab.

8 more annotations...

• 2009-2010 will rank with 1913-14, 1933-36, 1964-65 and 1981-82 as years that will permanently change our government, politics and lives.
• he will change our country fundamentally in the name of lifting the depression.
• He will begin by passing every program for which liberals have lusted for decades, from alternative-energy sources to school renovations, infrastructure repairs and technology enhancements.
• But it is not his spending that will transform our political system, it is his tax and welfare policies.
• And he will so sharply cut taxes on the middle class and the poor that the number of Americans who pay no federal income tax will rise from the current one-third of all households to more than half.
• he will create a permanent electoral majority that does not pay taxes, but counts on ever-expanding welfare checks from the government.
• Will he raise taxes? Why should he? With a congressional mandate to run the deficit up as high as need be, there is no reason to raise taxes now and risk aggravating the depression
• And, when the economy is restored, he will raise taxes with impunity, since the only people who will have to pay them would be rich Republicans.

  • ...which really means, only HONEST rich people will pay.
  Add Sticky Note
• The United States will find itself with an economic system comparable to that of Japan, where the all-powerful bureaucracy at MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) manages the economy, often making mistakes like giving mainframe computers priority over the development of laptops.
• But it is the healthcare system that will experience the most dramatic and traumatic of changes.
• as government imposes ever more Draconian price controls and income limits on doctors, the supply of practitioners and equipment will decline as the demand escalates.
• Price increases will be out of the question, so the government will impose healthcare rationing

10 more annotations...

• This may seem   harsh but the ultimate cure for a recession IS recession.
• Declining   prices allow consumers to more easily purchase products (homes,   autos) in excess supply; inventories are reduced and supply and   demand are brought into balance.
• declining profits weed out   business organizations and their managers that have invested poorly   during the boom
• It should be   obvious that random bailouts can short-circuit the recovery process   by propping up poorly performing companies and slowing resource   reallocation.
• With tens of billions in lost profits, General Motors   and Chrysler have demonstrated vast inefficiency; yet taxpayer bailouts   will preserve their poor management and high-cost union jobs.
• But none of this can remotely   promote recovery in the private sector of the economy. All it will   do is substitute some private/public sector jobs in one part of   the economy for other private/public sector jobs in another part   of the economy.
• The experience   in the 1930’s is instructive. Even though federal government spending   increased from $9.8 billion in 1934 to $14.2 billion in 1940, the   unemployment rate in 1940 was still a staggering 14.6%. A 45% increase   in New Deal spending in 6 years did not end the Depression.
• the federal government cannot   spend us out of our economic quagmire.
• The best that the government   can do is not make things worse.

7 more annotations...