C. Edmund Wright Explains and Validates the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy’s Existence and When It Began
Not that he set out to do it, but Mr. Wright has brilliantly explained (HT A Traditional Life Lived):
- Why my call that the economy’s condition since the summer of 2008 is almost solely the fault of Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid is absolutely correct.
- Why the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy really began when I said it did, i.e., why “going Galt got going” when it did.
- Why all of Dear Leader’s horses and all of Dear Leader’s men won’t be able to put what we used to know as the entrepreneurial American economy together again, unless they set aside their current mindset.
Key paragraphs of Wright’s must-read (bolds are mine):
…. politicians are equally ill-equipped to run the auto industry or the health industry or the lending industry or the insurance industry — and their determination to do so is sucking all the dynamism from the entrepreneurial class in this country.
With the threat of this administration and congress, what is the possible motivation for anyone with ideas and capital to invest his time, talent, and money into a risky endeavor? There appears to be none. In fact, there appear to be powerful incentives not to invest any time or treasure — thus an economy with almost zero creative inertia.
For Obama voters, almost zero creative inertia means almost no one is having bright ideas, starting businesses based on them, and hiring employees to help share the dream.
…. it’s different now, and there is no denying it. The (American) dream itself is being killed by legal and regulatory micromanagement. Washington is determined to employ policies to cure something that can be cured only by government getting the hell out of the way.
A small business summit in the White House will accomplish nothing unless the invitees include unions and lawyers and bureaucrats, in which case it will be devastating. When did a union or a lawyer or a bureaucrat ever start a business? How many times a day do they kill one?
And that’s the climate entrepreneurs see. Unions, lawyers, and bureaucrats gain more power and leverage every day. The big opportunity now is to spend government money: an eighteen-million-dollar government contract to create an awful Recovery.org website, SEIU union jobs in ObamaCare, bankruptcy lawyers, and perhaps carbon credit trades coming. There are ACORN-style crony contracts to be had, not to mention all the jobs created by the David Axelrod astroturfing media escapades. If you are connected or if your dream is to enrich yourself by killing the dreams of others, then the field is ripe for you.
But if you simply want to live some iteration of building a better mousetrap, this is not currently the country for you. And entrepreneurs can sense it. This is not about tax policy. It is not about health care. It is not about cap-and-trade. These are all terrible and need to be stopped, but most importantly, the dying American dream is in trouble. We now have a class of people in Washington now that will relentlessly pursue these ruinous initiatives, and a never-ending stream of similarly un-American agendas, until they are removed from power.
The businessmen are under attack, and they know it. This kind of economy cannot work — not until pigs fly, or until Barney Frank dunks on Lebron James.
The tipping point when entrepreneurs, businesspeople, and investors could sense everything Wright has described was reached in June-July 2008. Quite simply, that’s when enough of them to matter saw what was coming if Barack Obama won the presidency, and estimated that he would be the more likely winner.
Given the points Wright makes, it’s no surprise that the malaise turned into a rout at bailout time in late September and early October 2008. Pelosi, Obama, and Reid fully supported the creation of TARP, while others were dragged and/or hoodwinked into giving in to what their instincts screamed was a bad thing (and shame on all of them for doing so). Tim Geithner created the conditions that made it look necessary by, among other things, letting Lehman go under. Then of course it got even worse after Obama won and Democrats built a larger congressional majority.
Since mid-2008, it’s been their POR Economy; we’re just living and, as a country, underachieving in it.
Multiply the seriousness of every problem Wright cites by a large number if statist health care passes.