15 Comments Add your own

• 1. Billybeermonicagar  |  September 18th, 2008 at 11:27 pm

  What a surprise. Michael Kinsley wrote this?

• 2. Mike Carroll  |  September 19th, 2008 at 7:17 am

  “Finally, as economist Greg Mankiw points out in his blog, reacting to a similar calculation by Alan Blinder (both of them former chairs of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers), correlation is not causation. Maybe economic statistics are better when the president is a Democrat for reasons having nothing to do with the president’s skill in handling the economy.”
  You have to wade through a lot of sewage to get to Kinsley’s most salient point. His conscience must have been bothering him.

• 3. Pat Cunningham  |  September 19th, 2008 at 7:37 am

  Mike:Correlation or causation, the numbers speak for themselves. If they showed the opposite, we’d never hear the end of it from the Republicans. At the very least, the historical numbers disprove the notion that the Republicans are better at economics than the Democrats. So do the past few months. BTW, I’m working on an upcoming post entitled “We’re all socialists.” Any ideas you’d like to offer?

• 4. Billybeermonicagar  |  September 19th, 2008 at 7:46 am

  I have one. How about Congessman Joe Kennedy for President.

• 5. Mike Carroll  |  September 19th, 2008 at 8:06 am

  Pat-if the numbers speak for themselves you have been strangely silent when I have posted links to other studies that have exposed the liberal myths on economic performance. Anyone who thinks that higher taxes, income redistribution, more government spending and excessive business regulation are going to produce a growing economy are smoking things which are illegal.
  As far as all of us being socialists, I’ll respond to your post as I have no doubt but that liberals will come to exactly the wrong conclusion from our current credit crisis triggered by easy money and lax lending requirements encouraged by our friends in Congress and pushed primarily by Democrats back in the 90’s.

• 6. Kaus  |  September 19th, 2008 at 10:58 am

  Pat, these statistics are useless. They should actually be based on what jokers (democratic or republican) is asleep at the wheel when doing their job, not just who is President. I am sick of this fictitious mantra.

  Democrat Barney Frank as Chair of the House Financial Services Committee should share a deep responsibility for the biggest financial disaster since blowing up the twin towers.

  In 2003, Frank rejected Bush administration and Congressional Republican efforts for the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis. [25] Under the plan a new agency would have been created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.[26] “These two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” Frank said. He added, “The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”[27]

  Check Wikipedia “barney Frank”

• 7. Henry  |  September 19th, 2008 at 11:59 am

  Kaus - Who controlled Congress at the time? Republicans or Democrats.

• 8. Kaus  |  September 19th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

  Henry, perhaps you don’t know what being head of a Commission is….it has more responsibilities than a Community Organizer. Duhhhh

• 9. Henry  |  September 19th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

  Kaus - again.

  Who controlled Congress at the time? Republicans or Democrats.

• 10. DingDong  |  September 19th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

  Kaus-You have to remember like most liberals and children. The actual record does not matter. Only what they are told by whoever writes the editorial. Santa Obama is going to take the money from the rich evil people and give it to the middle class. I try my best to look at the actual source of the information and look at it for myself. Something Journalists will not do. You need to actually look it up and read the text of a bill or act. Check the congressional record…etc.

• 11. Kaus  |  September 19th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (commonly known as the SEC) is an independent agency of the United States government having primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry/stock market. .

  The SEC is composed of five commissioners, of which no more than three can be from a single political party. Currently the SEC commissioners are; chairman Christopher Cox (R), Kathleen L. Casey (R), Troy A. Paredes (R), Luis A. Aguilar (D) and Elisse B. Walter (D)

• 12. Kaus  |  September 19th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

  In addition, may also state:

  The Democrats, under Clinton, strengthened a government-created monster called the “Community Reinvestment Act.” This law was then used by “activists” and “community organizers” (like Obama?) to coerce lending institutions to make these bad loans … millions of them.

  And let’s also put responsibility of 9/11 financial disaster squarely in the hands of Bill Clinton and his lack of adequate containment of terrorists….going back to the Twin Tower bombing of 1993.

  This should be called the “Clinton Doctrine”.

• 13. DingDong  |  September 19th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

  Kaus - you know who first signed the “Community Reinvestment Act.”… Jimmy Carter in 1977.

• 14. Craig Knauss  |  September 19th, 2008 at 4:34 pm

  Kaus,

  Where was the “adequate containment of terrorists” during the Reagan and Bush I administrations? That was the period during which Osama bin Laden was developing his terrorist skills and during which the Mujahadeen was becoming al Qaida and the Taliban. Those organizations were already in full swing when Clinton became president. And whether you choose to believe it or not, Clinton almost “smoked” bin Laden, something Reagan and Bush I didn’t even attempt. And Bush II was fully briefed on bin Laden and al Qaida. It’s not Clinton’s fault “W” chose to ignore the warnings.

  And if you want to pick out damaging programs, I suggest you look at the Foreign Investment Tax Credit, which was used to give tax breaks to U.S, companies for exporting jobs.

• 15. Henry  |  September 19th, 2008 at 8:26 pm

  Banking was deregulated in 1990. Who was president then?

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