Fortunes Even A Hack Can Tell

28 January 2009 at 12:06 pm Michael Sykuta 2 comments

| Mike Sykuta |

A couple weeks ago, Brad DeLong included me in a list of ethics-free Republican hacks because I was among a number of economists who posted comments on Rep. John Boehner’s website critical of the proposed Democratic “stimulus plan.” To wit, I posted:

History has shown that the Obama team’s proposed ‘stimulus’ is not only going to have little to no effect in the short run, but will create a larger bureaucratic structure, lead to tremendous investments in unproductive political lobbying among ‘stimulus project’ wannabes, and dissuade/delay private investment, recovery and growth.

So imagine my surprise (or lack thereof) to see the headline article of today’s Wall Street Journal. The ink is not even dry on the legislative draft that Congress is expected to vote on sometime today, and lobbyists from stimulus project wannabes such as the concrete and asphalt industries are battling over how we should rebuild and repair roads and bridges; dairy and beef cattle producers are battling over talk of a government program to slaughter dairy cattle and increase milk prices. States are clamoring for bailouts. And the labor unions are singing on their way to the bank with plans for massive infrastructure spending.

In the spirit of Art Carden’s recent post, “Everything is proceeding precisely as I have foreseen.” Ethics-free hack or no.

Entry filed under: Bailout / Financial Crisis, Former Guest Bloggers.

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2 Comments Add your own

1. David Hoopes | 29 January 2009 at 2:34 am

What’s really strange is that someone who at one time was probably a serious thinker sinks into such pointless name calling. I guess it just shows how being good at one thing (a certain type of scholarship) doesn’t mean you are good at other things (judgment, non-bovine thinking). My guess is that he is more concerned about what his “friends” think about his political posturing than the quality of this thought.
2. Now, Everyone, Gasp In Surprise « Truth on the Market | 15 September 2010 at 2:52 pm

[…] least by the expectations of reasonable economic thinkers. For example, see the posts here and here from my pre-TOTM days. But as to his conclusion that government needs to get out of the […]