President-Elect Obama is speaking at George Mason University today. It is expected that he will spend a trillion dollars in the first months of his administration as part of his stimulus plan. Mayors and Governors are lining up to make sure that their cities and states get "needed" funds to kick start.
We often talk about the conflict between good economics and good politics that public choice theory forces us to think about. But what happens when bad economics meets politics completely unconstrained? Well, buckle your seats we are about to go that way under the name of "saving us from the dogmas of the past."
Everyone should be aware that in the first instance Barack Obama was inspired to pursue a political /social welfare career by the political economic ideals of his socialist father, a Harvard trained economist:
http://gregransom.com/prestopundit/2008/04/gregs-guide-to-barack-obamas-d.html
There's more to the story, of course, but that is how the story starts.
Posted by: Greg Ransom | January 08, 2009 at 12:06 PM
I hate it when politicians come to speak at universities, especially so-called private universities like NYU. The university officials get all excited; they often give them honors and so forth. It doesn't matter which party, of course. I think there should be a separation of universities and politicians because the students (and faculty) need to be "nudged" away from State worship. They need to be helped in maintaining an objective attitude toward the actions of government. This is a form of paternalism I advocate.
Posted by: Mario Rizzo | January 08, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Did any of you GMU guys protest?
Posted by: Zachary Kurtz | January 08, 2009 at 01:04 PM
I hate it when politicians speak. Period.
Posted by: Dave Prychitko | January 08, 2009 at 01:12 PM
Zachary,
It is invitation only.
Posted by: Ian Dunois | January 08, 2009 at 01:40 PM
Ian - Shame.
It looks like Alex Tabarrok got an invite and liked what he heard: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/01/obama-at-gmu.html
I'd be interested in hearing a rebuttal from the Austrian blogosphere!
Posted by: Zachary Kurtz | January 08, 2009 at 02:02 PM
I kinda hoped Tabarrok would throw his shoes.
Posted by: Bob Murphy | January 08, 2009 at 05:52 PM
Today in the London "Daily Telegraph" there was a piece on another special interest group lining up for a bailout handout from the new Congress and Administration.
Larry Flint of "Hustler" magazine has gotten together with other porn producers to prepare a proposal for a $5 billion bailout for the porn industry.
It seems that bad times has been bad on people's sex drives and porn sales are not doing to well.
This shows that in the new climate in Washington, the political philosophy for government handouts is: "Cum one, cum all."
Richard Ebeling
Posted by: Richard Ebeling | January 08, 2009 at 06:48 PM
Check out Obama's pathetic record on farm welfare. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122765760437258197.html
Posted by: Rafe Champion | January 08, 2009 at 07:03 PM
Richard,
For what it's worth, I think Flint (Flynt?) is doing it tongue-in-cheek, almost like a modern day Petition of the Candlemakers. I don't have the link, but someone sent me an article that had a bunch of his quotes, and he *had* to be joking.
Posted by: Bob Murphy | January 09, 2009 at 12:39 AM