Manchurian Candidate Starts War On Business

[Peeping Wizard]

More and more articles like this are popping up. I realize that you Obama guys like to poo poo this stuff, but where there is smoke there is fire.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=amhpOT5rlR1Y

Manchurian Candidate’ Starts War on Business: Kevin Hassett

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Commentary by Kevin Hassett

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Back in the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson gave us the War on Poverty. In the 1970s, Richard Nixon launched the War on Drugs. Now that we have seen President Barack Obama’s first-year legislative agenda, we know what kind of a war he intends to wage.

It is no wonder that markets are imploding around us. Obama is giving us the War on Business.

Imagine that some hypothetical enemy state spent years preparing a “Manchurian Candidate” to destroy the U.S. economy once elected. What policies might that leader pursue?

He might discourage private capital from entering the financial sector by instructing his Treasury secretary to repeatedly promise a brilliant rescue plan, but never actually have one. Private firms, spooked by the thought of what government might do, would shy away from transactions altogether. If the secretary were smooth and played rope-a-dope long enough, the whole financial sector would be gone before voters could demand action.

Another diabolical idea would be to significantly increase taxes on whatever firms are still standing. That would require subterfuge, since increasing tax rates would be too obvious. Our Manchurian Candidate would have plenty of sophisticated ideas on changing the rules to get more revenue without increasing rates, such as auctioning off “permits.”

These steps would create near-term distress. If our Manchurian Candidate leader really wanted to knock the country down for good, he would have to provide insurance against any long-run recovery.

There are two steps to accomplish that.

Discourage Innovation

First, one way the economy might finally take off is for some entrepreneur to invent an amazing new product that launches something on the scale of the dot-com boom. If you want to destroy an economy, you have to persuade those innovators not even to try.

Second, you need to initiate entitlement programs that are difficult to change once enacted. These programs should transfer assets away from productive areas of the economy as efficiently as possible. Ideally, the government will have no choice but to increase taxes sharply in the future to pay for new entitlements.

A leader who pulled off all that might be able to finish off the country.

Let’s see how Obama’s plan compares with our nightmare scenario.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been so slow to act that even liberal economist and commentator Paul Krugman is criticizing the administration for “dithering.” It has gotten so bad that the Intrade prediction market now has a future on whether Geithner is gone by year’s end. It currently puts the chance of that at about 20 percent.

No More Deferral

On the tax hike, Obama’s proposed 2010 budget quite ominously signaled that he intends to end or significantly amend the U.S. practice of allowing U.S. multinationals to defer U.S. taxes on income that they earn abroad.

Currently, the U.S. has the second-highest corporate tax on Earth. U.S. firms can compete in Europe by opening a subsidiary in a low-tax country and locating the profits there. Since the high U.S. tax applies only when the money is mailed home, and firms can let the money sit abroad for as long as they want, the big disadvantage of the high rate is muted significantly.

End that deferral opportunity and U.S. firms will no longer be able to compete, given their huge tax disadvantage. With foreign tax rates so low now, it is even possible that the end of deferral could lead to the extinction of the U.S. corporation.

If any firms are to remain, they will be festooned with massive carbon-permit expenses because of Obama’s new cap-and- trade program.

Importing Drugs

Obama’s attack on intellectual property is evident in his aggressive stance against U.S. pharmaceutical companies in the budget. He would force drug companies to pay higher “rebate” fees to Medicaid, and he included wording that suggests Americans will soon be able to import drugs from foreign countries. The stock prices of drug companies, predictably, tanked when his budget plan was released.

Obama will allow cheap and potentially counterfeit substitutes into the country and will set the U.S. price for drugs equal to the lowest price that any foreign government is able to coerce from our drugmakers.

Given this, why would anyone invest money in a risky new cancer trial, or bother inventing some other new thing that the government could expropriate as soon as it decides to?

Finally, Obama has set aside $634 billion to establish a health-reform reserve fund, a major first step in creating a universal health-care system. If you want to have health care for everyone, you have to give it to many people for free. Once we start doing that, we will never stop, at least until the government runs out of money.

It’s clear that President Obama wants the best for our country. That makes it all the more puzzling that he would legislate like a Manchurian Candidate.

(Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, is a Bloomberg News columnist. He was an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential election. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Kevin Hassett at khassett@aei.org

[GibbsFactor]

You'd think that the Manchurian candidate would be pro-business. Who else but business would have the resources to pull it off?

[SnyderShrugged]

I'm not a fan of the majority things that President Obama has done/proposed, but I think it's a large stretch for a former McCain top aid to throw the manchurian Candidate accusation around. It has the feeling of sour grapes more than legitimacy (IMHO)

[Peeping Wizard]

I'm not a fan of the majority things that President Obama has done/proposed, but I think it's a large stretch for a former McCain top aid to throw the manchurian Candidate accusation around. It has the feeling of sour grapes more than legitimacy (IMHO)

The points he makes are compelling and backed up by real world evidence.

[The 12th Commandment]

I realize that you Obama guys like to poo poo this stuff, but where there is smoke there is fire.

Uh huh. Poo poo is incendiary.

[Peeping Wizard]

Uh huh. Poo poo is incendiary.

Buffalo chips...:pooh::pooh:

[GibbsFactor]

Uh huh. Poo poo is incendiary.

Only when it's in a bag.

[The 12th Commandment]

Only when it's in a bag.

Stick around and watch this thread go up in flames.

[SnyderShrugged]

The points he makes are compelling and backed up by real world evidence.

I'm not debating that his policies are detrimental to the US. But there is zero evidence listed or not, pertaining a "Manchurian" scenario.

[Peeping Wizard]

I'm not debating that his policies are detrimental to the US. But there is zero evidence listed or not, pertaining a "Manchurian" scenario.

I think it is just an attention-grabbing title. He is trying to show what a Manchurian Candidate WOULD do and how Obama is doing many of the same things, even if not intentionally.

[SnyderShrugged]

I think it is just an attention-grabbing title. He is trying to show what a Manchurian Candidate WOULD do and how Obama is doing many of the same things, even if not intentionally.

Yeah, the title is a bit misleading.

[Mad Mike]

Obama will allow cheap and potentially counterfeit substitutes into the country and will set the U.S. price for drugs equal to the lowest price that any foreign government is able to coerce from our drugmakers.

Oh the Horror! Drug makers would be forced to sell their drugs at competitive rates! And those potentially counterfeit substitutes... They come from the current system where people like me have to pay three times the market rate for drugs they need to stay alive so they go looking for shady deals in the grey market.

In order to risk a lot of money on a cancer drug that might not work so the drug companies can make a massive profit, lets screw the people we know we can help now with lower cost drugs. That makes sense. :doh:

This guy is a fear monger. Nothing more.

[Peeping Wizard]

This guy is a fear monger. Nothing more.

Well, we have a fear monger in the White House as well.

[ACW]

Well, we have a fear monger in the White House as well.

Bush isn't in the White House anymore

[December90]

When unemployment hits 15% somehow this crook Obama will consider it Bush's fault.

We are only getting the economy that we voted for. If you are unemployed and you voted for this guy, you only have yourself to blame...

American social policy is well on its way to completely destroying what is left of the once great country. As someone I know put it so well, we are robbing the thrifty to take care of the shifty.

As for the OP perhaps being "a stretch" or "Sour Grapes", Take the perspective that you are seeking to destroy the American Economy...What else would you try to do in order to collapse the economy on top of itself?

[Peeping Wizard]

Bush isn't in the White House anymore

Yes, now we have another fear monger. This President thrives on making us thing things are worse than they are and that Government is the only solution to our problems.

[Peeping Wizard]

As for the OP perhaps being "a stretch" or "Sour Grapes", Take the perspective that you are seeking to destroy the American Economy...What else would you try to do in order to collapse the economy on top of itself?

Don't you know that only Keith Olberman or Rachel Maddow have valid and credible opinions on the President...

[Midnight Judges]

I think I know why these boobs call everything a war.

[Duckus]

Very good article, however, I honestly think he made stronger points in the book he co-authored "Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market." This guy KNOWS the economy in and out, we need to listen to him. I made millions off of his book.

"Hassett is coauthor with James K. Glassman, of Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market. It was published in 1999 before the dot-com bubble burst. The book's title was based on a calculation that, in the absence of the equity premium, stock prices would be approximately four times as high as they actually were. In its introduction, Glassman and his co-author wrote that the book "will convince you of the single most important fact about stocks at the dawn of the twenty-first century: They are cheap....If you are worried about missing the market's big move upward, you will discover that it is not too late. Stocks are now in the midst of a one-time-only rise to much higher ground–to the neighborhood of 36,000 on the Dow Jones industrial average."[1] The Dow industrials index closed at 10,681.06 on the day of the book's publication[2] but by the end of 2004 it remained at essentially the same level -- 10,783.01, having dropped over 25% in the meantime but recovered. As of March 2, 2009 The Dow Jones was at 6763.29 - 81% below his 36,000 prediction."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Hassett

[mjah]

We already had a guy who resembled a Manchurian Candidate. And he was unabashedly courted by big business, the only folks with enough money to have that kind of influence. And his administration did do a whole bunch of stuff that was detrimental to the country and helped put us into the mess we now have on our hands.

And once the American people realized they had been fooled, he left office with one of the worst approval ratings in history. Let the evidence reflect that fact.

Another curious fact: Hassett, the white knight riding to the pen-and-ink rescue of Big Business, was totally silent when our former president gave every indication of subverting the American people's liberties and our country's economic health. Let the existing and emerging evidence reflect this fact as well. Where was the principled Hassett then? Curiously silent. Not exactly a reliable narrator, is he?

Frightened Republicans (a mere subset of the party, btw) are tossing around stone-stupid garbage like this article because their glass house has already been completely shattered. Might as well keep throwing rocks at this point. They have nothing to lose.

[Mad Mike]

When unemployment hits 15% somehow this crook Obama will consider it Bush's fault.

We are only getting the economy that we voted for. If you are unemployed and you voted for this guy, you only have yourself to blame...

American social policy is well on its way to completely destroying what is left of the once great country. As someone I know put it so well, we are robbing the thrifty to take care of the shifty.

As for the OP perhaps being "a stretch" or "Sour Grapes", Take the perspective that you are seeking to destroy the American Economy...What else would you try to do in order to collapse the economy on top of itself?

That's about as stupid as the claim that the economy that was tanking in Bush's first year wasn't already dropping at the end of Clinton's term. Or the Claim that 9/11 didn't impact the economy, or that the tech bubble didn't create the boom under Clinton.

Anyone out there who thinks any president can wave his hand and with any policy change this economy in 100 days, probably shouldn't be allowed to vote. :doh:

[Hubbs]

We already had a guy who resembled a Manchurian Candidate. And he was unabashedly courted by big business, the only folks with enough money to have that kind of influence. And his administration did do a whole bunch of stuff that was detrimental to the country and helped put us into the mess we now have on our hands.

And once the American people realized they had been fooled, he left office with one of the worst approval ratings in history. Let the evidence reflect that fact.

Another curious fact: Hassett, the white knight riding to the pen-and-ink rescue of Big Business, was totally silent when our former president gave every indication of subverting the American people's liberties and our country's economic health. Let the existing and emerging evidence reflect this fact as well. Where was the principled Hassett then? Curiously silent. Not exactly a reliable narrator, is he?

Frightened Republicans (a mere subset of the party, btw) are tossing around stone-stupid garbage like this article because their glass house has already been completely shattered. Might as well keep throwing rocks at this point. They have nothing to lose.

Number of words attacking author's political credibility: A whole bunch

Number of words disproving anything he actually said: Zero

He might be partisan, but that doesn't mean that he's wrong.

[December90]

I think I know why these boobs call everything a war.

If you call it "War" you inspire emotion and can convince people to part with their cash to pay for it. (Both parties use this wordplay)

On the bright side of things. The Great Depression brought forth the WWII Generation which is (many would argue) the best generation this nation has ever had. Since We are looking to repeat (and actually deepen) the depths of the Great Depression, What will the generation from the 2015-2030 be like (hopefully something like the generation of people who lived through 1930-1945)

My prediction is still that Unemployment will hit over 15%. I am not yet ready to expand that to say that we will surpass the Unemployment rates that FDR brought us. But I will say that it would not surprise me.

[Midnight Judges]

Very good article, however, I honestly think he made stronger points in the book he co-authored "Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market." This guy KNOWS the economy in and out, we need to listen to him. I made millions off of his book.

"Hassett is coauthor with James K. Glassman, of Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market. It was published in 1999 before the dot-com bubble burst. The book's title was based on a calculation that, in the absence of the equity premium, stock prices would be approximately four times as high as they actually were. In its introduction, Glassman and his co-author wrote that the book "will convince you of the single most important fact about stocks at the dawn of the twenty-first century: They are cheap....If you are worried about missing the market's big move upward, you will discover that it is not too late. Stocks are now in the midst of a one-time-only rise to much higher ground–to the neighborhood of 36,000 on the Dow Jones industrial average."[1] The Dow industrials index closed at 10,681.06 on the day of the book's publication[2] but by the end of 2004 it remained at essentially the same level -- 10,783.01, having dropped over 25% in the meantime but recovered. As of March 2, 2009 The Dow Jones was at 6763.29 - 81% below his 36,000 prediction."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Hassett

I am not following you. The guy predicts the DOW is going to go to 36,000 (but he won't say when) and then it drops 30%, and you're telling me he was right?

Hell, I predict the DOW will go to 50,000. But I won't say when. Isn't the "when" the hard part?

[December90]

That's about as stupid as the claim that the economy that was tanking in Bush's first year wasn't already dropping at the end of Clinton's term. Or the Claim that 9/11 didn't impact the economy, or that the tech bubble didn't create the boom under Clinton.

Anyone out there who thinks any president can wave his hand and with any policy change this economy in 100 days, probably shouldn't be allowed to vote. :doh:

The Democrats who actually control the budget have NOTHING to do with it. The difference now is that the POTUS agrees with the crooks in the House and Senate.