Well, the voters spoke.
A thin majority said “give me things I want, and make someone else pay for it!”.
Message received.
Biggest Winners
- Government Dependents: Government workers, public employees union members, clients of all types who live off of wealth generated by others? You’ve got four years of party time.
- The Media: The media, in Minnesota and elsewhere, compiled a shameful record in this past election. From CBS spiking the story that President Obama knew Benghazi was a terror attack almost from moment one to the Minnesota press’ silence on the local consequences of Obamacare’s medical device tax (which is shipping jobs to India via FedEx even as we speak) to its complete pass on Mark Dayton’s past, his record, his mental health and the people who support him, the press found its new purpose. It may be dying on the open market – but the media still has a role; the Democrats’ Praetorian Guard. The media polling and “fact check” industries, in particular, dropped all pretense of “journalism” and became unvarnished cheerleaders for the left.
- Plutocrats And Their Lackeys: Make no mistake about it – Minnesota’s biggest winner last night was Alida Messinger. They won by pouring bottomless pits of money – inherited from robber barons and extorted from employees alike – into gulling…
- Low-Information Voters: From the lefty tweeps who babbled about “Romney’s Tax Returns”, to Sandra Fluke’s whinging about a non-existant war on women, to every single voter that still believes the economy is George W. Bush’s fault – and there were many of them – last night was a resounding victory for remedial America.
Biggers Losers
- Atlas: The parts of America that actually produce things – from the Minnesota Third Congressional District, where Erik Paulsen crushed Brian Barnes, and the Sixth, where Michele Bachmann seems to have held off a well-funded challenger with hair that defies physics – to the entire US-281 corridor from North Dakota down through Texas, the parts of America and Minnesota that actually create wealth, productivity, energy, are going to be hamstrung with ever-more-onerous regulations and ever-higher taxes. We are one chamber of Congress away from being France.
- Our Grandchildren: My three grandchildren, between them, are $650,000 in debt. So far. And, by the way, counting. Have a great life, kids.
- Freedom: P. J. O’Rourke – who’d be rolling in his grave today if he were dead – once said conservatives see freedom in terms of speech, religion, press, assembly, association, thought. Liberals see it as the freedom to wave their privates about and be free of consequences. Expect Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security to become an even more-egregious enforcer of political correctness disguised as safety.
- Grassroots Politics: This race was a huge win for big-money out-of-state interests over home-grown candidates with grass-roots support. When the brilliant Stacey Stout, who knocked every single door in her open district twice, can lose to a toxic stiff like Peter Fischer, who campaigned like his mother-in-law’s life depended on it and was supported only by a wave of out-of-district money, you know there’s a problem.
- The Victims of Benghazi And Juarez: The truth about both of these episodes – a cynical election-eve cover-up and an even more cynical use of government power to prop up Administration social policy that backfired, killing hundreds – will be that much longer in coming out.
- The Entire American Ideal: This nation was once a “free association of equals”. No longer. Today, the US is “a group of managed outcomes”.
- Our Future: It’s virtually inevitable that the US will now charge blithely over the fiscal cliff, without even the faintest bit of interest at the executive and half the legislative level. At least Greece and Spain had a Germany to run to to ask for a bailout. Who does the world’s largest economy ask for help? Read up on your Weimar German history if you’re missing the point, here.
Seeuentee left another pile of Dog Crap.
Factcheck that!
Wow did the market crash today; the Obama Great Recession continues…
. Dog Gone is refering to an article that appeared in the Boston Globe on November 2nd, but is now behind a paywall so I can’t read it. Assuming she accurately reported the article’s conclusions, I join Terry and GolfDoc in objecting. GDP includes government spending that naturally is higher under Democrats. Considering President Obama is the man who made “trillion” a household word, the only wonder is the number isn’t higher.
Dog Gone and I agree: Democrats throw away money faster than Republicans. We differ in that I think that’s not a good thing.
“You should also realize the election outcome had already been factored into investment decisions weeks ago so its outcome has little relative immediate effect on the market.”
The chance of an Obama win had been priced into the market, not its certainty.
On Monday night on Intrade, shares of a Romney win were worth $3.50.
This morning, $0.0.
See how that works?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49729876
Mitch,
I guess I’m missing your point on the Wiemar analogy in so far as “Who does the world’s largest economy run to for help…”. In order to get out from under the reparations the Germans printed money to give France and England a devalued papiermark, destroying what savings existed within the country through inflation. After the Dawson agreement helped sort out the reparations issue American banks invested and the economy was recovering in the 24-29 period, until the depression forced the banks to call in the loans which forced Germany into a tailspin.
Are you saying we’re heading for hyper-inflation, or are you saying the other countries (China, Japan, Britain, etc) will stop buying bonds and force us into higher interest rates? We’re still the place for “flight to safety” with the Eurozone having to deal with its “Government in name only” issues, so its unlikely we’ll get ganked. Unlike Wiemar, our issues are political and social, not structural like they had.
Winners: Middle class and American jobs, Moms, minorities (especially Hispanics), and women in general.
Losers: Angry fat, old white guys, plutocrats (sorry Mitch they do FAR better under the “cons”), Tea Party haters and other science deniers (American Taliban) of all stripes.
Whenever anything bad happened, and the New York Times had a chance to spin it against Conservatives, they would stretch reason and logic beyond all recognition to do it. The classic New York Times Headline parody was: “[insert Bad Thing here], Women and Minorities Hardest Hit.”
Dog Gone has taken that parody and elevated it to new heights: “[insert Liberal occurance here], Women and Minorities Benefit Most.”
A parody of a parody, cool. And here I thought she was a bitter, humorless Libtard. I was wrong, Dog Gone. My apologies.
Just an observation, Bill Haverberg.
And this:
“I guess I’m missing your point on the Wiemar analogy”
confirms it.
But hey, thanks for the really advice! 😉
“We’re still the place for “flight to safety” with the Eurozone having to deal with its “Government in name only” issues, so its unlikely we’ll get ganked.”
So, if the European economy stinks (as it does now) we can blame it for hobbling the U.S. economy, and if the European recovers, we can blame it for driving up interest rates and hobbling the U.S. economy.
That way, Obama always has an excuse, doesn’t he?
Terry: That may be the goal. Obama supporters I know were having a difficult time with the whole “blaming George W. Bush for all bad things” while “failing to not seem incredibly stupid” thing.
Dog Gone, isn’t there some carpet you need to tend to? Go num it or go lay by your dish.
Terry, could you elaborate? I know splattering attitude can be fun, but I was really looking for content. I’m very familiar with Wiemar Germany and there are so many parts to that era of history – things changed so fast … unless you narrow the analogy its hard matching it to actual history.
I meant Troy, sorry.
Bill H,
The parts of the Weimar (ei!) (in German, with “ei” or “ie”, you always pronounce the letter apprearing last) that apply here are the consequences of complete devaluation of the currency.
What are those consequences?
We’ll see, won’t we?
Also Bill:
Are you saying we’re heading for hyper-inflation, or are you saying the other countries (China, Japan, Britain, etc) will stop buying bonds and force us into higher interest rates?
Both, in opposite order.
And finally, DG – not that she’ll actually read this (she never does):
That Boston Glob piece is part of a meme that’s been popping up for years. As with all such memes, the top-level conclusion, “the economy grows best under Democrats!”, obscures the truths underneath.
So let’s shoot for some facts, here:
Truman GDP growth benefitted from the end of the post-war recession. Interesting that they chose to start with 1949; 1946-1948 were TERRIBLE years for the economy.
Ike had decent growth, hobbled by a nasty recession late in his second term.
Kennedy had good growth – in part because of Cold War military and space program spending (defense was 25% of the federal budget), partly because he cut taxes (!) and partly because the US still had the world’s only functional economy; Japan was still rebuilding, Britain had only stopped food rationing in the mid fifties.
Johnson’s GDP growth benefitted from MASSIVE military and social spending, sustained by the fact that we still had the world’s only functional economy. Europe was slowly bouncing back from WW2 (and spending most of the fruits of the rebound on social spending, not conquering the US market), India and China were mired in socialist failure. We owned the world, so we could afford to do it all. The GDP rate showed it.
Nixon’s growth rate suffered from the aftereffects of two decades of Keynesianism, combined with a slowdown in defense spending after Vietnam, the oil crunch and the recession it triggered, and the stagnation that dominated the economy through the Carter years, exacerbated by the fact that we now had competition; Japan had recovered from the war, and was turning into an export powerhouse.
Reagan’s growth rate was solid, and the effects carried through the nineties. More in a bit.
Bush I suffered from a downturn at the end of the Cold War, as the economy realigned away from defense spending.
Clinton benefitted from two things; the Peace Dividend (the economy turned away from inefficient defense spending to civilian production) and six years of Republican control of Congress, forcing Clinton’s inner Keynesianist to shut up and act conservative.
Bush suffered from three things; 9/11 (and the attendant deflation of the Tech Bubble), the fact that he spent like a Democrat, and the fact that the world economy gained two more competitors; China and India both entered the market, having thrown off the worst excesses of socialism.
Obama? Well, he’s been a complete disaster.
So that BoGlo story may have had the numbers right – but without context, they are meaningless.
Response, DG?
We’re diluting the value of the dollar by a trillion dollars per year of federal bonds that the Federal Reserve now buys because nobody else will. Soon, some Arab country will stop pretending dollars have value to accept for oil and when one nation admits the emperor’s nudity, it will start a stampede to a replacement currency backed by something more credible that the strength of the promises made by the likes of Barney Frank or Barak Obama.
When other countries stop buying our bonds the U.S. government will turn to a captive audience and go after the “unfair” accumulations Americans have built up in their 401k (or 201k) plans, passing a law that a certain percentage of these assets be converted to government bonds – for our own “security” of course. The only things the Republicans will be able to do (especially if Boehner is still in charge) is push back on just how big a percentage that will be.
Bill, I am not an ‘inflation bug’. I think the more likely outcome is a rise in the interest rate the treasury must pay to sell securities. This will eat into discretionary spending, then entitlements. There really is a laffer curve — all Laffer said is that at a certain point, raising taxes will decrease revenue. Reasonable people can disagree on what that level is.
Re: Weimar. I haven’t studied the era in depth, but my understanding is that hyperinflation ended when the German government replaced the currency with a new currency backed by state assets — land, rights of way, things like that.
Look on the bright side — we are sitting on around 600 billion barrels of oil. Current value around 60 trillion bucks.
We (meaning the gov’t) could start backing T-bills with oil if it comes to that.
Mitch Berg wrote:
“the oil crunch and the recession it triggered”
Economists call that ‘supply shock’. Stagflation results. Nasty stuff. If hyperinflation is an economy in a raging fever, Supply shock is the debilitating cold that you can’t quite shake.
“The parts of the Weimar (ei!) (in German, with “ei” or “ie”, you always pronounce the letter apprearing last)”
*face palms* I knew that….
Also, thanks Mitch, Terry. I really did mean Troy re the attitude comment, I’m used to forums that let you re-edit so I’m having to get used to shifting my proofreading.
Agreed regarding the interest rates & later inflation, and its going to be one of those bifurcation events with a sharp cliff. The reason we can do this is because no one has viscerally seen the effects on themselves, and the low interest rates are really masking a fundamental problem. When the cliff yawns, politicians will go for a “Japan” solution and stretch out the pain instead of letting things fall apart and start over.
This IS solvable, but its going to take a change in politics and especially in how we pay for health care. My mom’s hearing aid cost $4,000 on the public till. Mine cost $87 from Amazon. People wrap themselves in flags, crosses, guns, medicare, environment, what-have-you and its like any sort of self-examination within the group is viewed as an attack on the group. That only lets the bastards continue to collect obscene amounts of money (like for my mom’s hearing aid) and whip up frothy wing nuts and moon beams.
Sorry Bill, but you deserve the attitude.
Citations and examples, please, Troy.