Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • How We Are Different
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • Your Survival Guy
  • The Great Reset
  • COVID-19
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • The Swiss Way
  • Dick Young
  • Debbie Young
  • Key West
  • Paris
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Dick Young’s Safe America
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • Critical Race Theory
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Work to Make Money/Invest to Save Money

In the Age of Coronavirus – Cracker Jack Economics

March 24, 2020 By Debbie Young

President Donald J. Trump meets with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressional leadership Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019, in the Cabinet Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

What is it with these politicians looking for a prize in every package? Even though it may seem like light-years away, it was only last week that Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders clashed over stimulus in a primary debate, Andy Kessler reminds readers in the WSJ.

Shoveling Something with “Shovel Ready”

Mr. Biden celebrated the 2009 Recovery Act, saying it “had $900 billion in it and was the thing that kept us from going into a Great Depression.”

If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to nowhere to sell you. The Obama administration touted “shovel ready” projects—they were shoveling something, all right.

Sadly, a Stimulus for All

Then again, remember President George W. Bush’s 2008 $152 billion stimulus in the form of tax-rebate checks? The “booster shot” for the economy was a huge dud. Sadly, here we go again—a stimulus for all of us.

What actually saved the economy in 2009 was one word: backstop. Finance froze because toxic mortgage-backed securities littered the system and, as with mad-cow disease, no one knew which ones were bad.

The Federal Reserve provided a backstop to the commercial-paper market, then money-market funds and eventually banks, by buying up many mortgages to relieve default risk. Once bank stress tests took Armageddon off the table, lending restarted and the crisis ended. Spending on roads and bailing out General Motors were mere pork-barrel waste.

Cracker Jack Stimulus Won’t Work

As Mr. Kessler explains, the economy climbed out of the Great Recession in large measure thanks to the production and delivery of iPhones, Teslas and Lyfts (oh my) over the decade that followed.

The best stimulus is the production of goods and services that the economy needs, at ever-cheaper prices.

By all means, let’s get immediate money to those who need it through unemployment assistance and backstop loans. But government giveaways as stimulus don’t work. It’s just Cracker Jack economics.

P.S. In the Age of Coronavirus: a Homemade Throat Sanitizer.

P.P.S. If you can’t find hand-sanitizer, you can make your own.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • In the Age of Coronavirus – a View from Your Couch
  • In the Age of Coronavirus – a Little Perspective
  • In the Age of Coronavirus – the Global Response
  • Coronavirus Map
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Debbie Young
Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving her Porsche Boxter S through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga.
Latest posts by Debbie Young (see all)
  • President Joe Biden’s Good Question - May 25, 2022
  • Biden IGNORES Americans’ Pain at the Pump, Touts “Green Transition” - May 24, 2022
  • Our Daily Bread Threatened? - May 23, 2022

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Your Survival Guy’s 2022 Super States: #1 New Hampshire
  • CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY: Alabama Becomes 22nd Permitless Carry State
  • Your Cash Swept into Your Broker’s Bank Account!
  • “The Losses are Taking a Toll on Their Health”
  • “An Epic Struggle Over the Definition of America”
  • Does Big Government Create Poverty?
  • Government Should Be Small, Laws Unobtrusive, and Men Left Alone
  • Work to Make Money/Invest to Save Money
  • 751 “No-Go” Zones in France
  • “I’ve Got Guys Buying Guns/Ammo for Me All Through the Night.”

Our Most Popular Posts

  • Jean-Pierre: Economy "Not Something that We Keep an Eye on Every Day"
  • Consequences of Biden Killing the Keystone Pipeline
  • Harvard Professor Calls Homeschooling a "Threat to Society"
  • PRIMARIES: Trump Endorsed Candidates’ HUGE Night
  • PARTY'S OVER JOE: Republicans Crush Democrats in Local Elections
  • Are You Suffering from One of These Nutrient Deficiencies?
  • Our Daily Bread Threatened?
  • President Joe Biden’s Good Question
  • Tucker Carlson Interviews My Favorite Florida Farmer
  • BUY THE DIPS? Can You Catch a Ginsu Knife?

Disclosure

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”
  • China Builds an Anti-Quad Coalition
  • If You Have a Plan, I Believe You’ll Get to Where You Want to Go
  • There Are Tech Companies “Still Dreaming of Boundless Growth”
  • Nowadays, Everyone Is Getting Some Dividend Religion
  • How Can the Fed Prevent Stagflation?
  • How to Avoid the Restrictions of a Target Date Fund
  • Now You Can Own Your Vacation and It Doesn’t Have to Be a Time Share
  • Watch Out for Your Worst Enemy
  • Big Banks Adopting Blockchain for Short-Term Trading

KRISTALLNACHT: How Well Intentioned Gun Registries Become Tools of Evil

Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”

Is America About to Lose Its Investments in Colombia?

POWER MOVE? Did Viktor Orban Just Seize Control of Hungary?

Americans Are Abandoning ESPN and Woke Professional Sports Leagues

If You Have a Plan, I Believe You’ll Get to Where You Want to Go

Copyright © 2022 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives