I am sick and tired of people looking towards presidential candidates and the president for economic solutions. Some where along the line the American people started looking for the answers to domestic problems on a federal level; “Who is going to get me out of debt? Who is going make sure my kids go to college? Why the president of course!” WRONG!!!!!
I understand the president can have some effect on the economy but the answer is not in government to fix the problems. The answer is in free market capitalism. No matter how much one wants to take away the profits of corporations through obscene tax hikes, they will continue to make money, which is good thing.
All the president can do to help the economy is to reduce regulation and taxes. If any president punishes corporations for making to much money or caps the price of gasoline then we do not have a president we have a king. It makes me sick to think of how many people support the idea of a gasoline price cap and punishing the oil companies for too much profit.
We need less interference from the government and more freedom to allow business to reach the demands of the people. I want a president who doesn’t know shit about the economy and leaves it to the private sector!
I agree that the President, simply because of the powerful position he holds, gets the blame for economic hard times. I too have faith in free market capitalism, but I'm concerned that a huge disconnect now exists between large corporations and the American people. Once upon a time, what was good for businesses was good for the people, because those businesses employed the people, gave them benefits, etc. I don't think that's the case anymore...
Although the president cannot control the economy, I still believe that some sort of government policy restricting American businesses from outsourcing overseas can help improve the economy. The more positions that can be outsourced to India, the closer we are to the elimination of the middle class. Do we really want a country where there is only the rich and the poor?
http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2007/02/outsourcing_whe....
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/04/outsource_the_g....
For the most part, I believe in free market capitolism, darwinism economy if you will. However, I dislike the fact that corporations can become too powerful through unethical and irresponsible means not allowing any chance for smaller companies, no matter how wise their business decisions are.
Like what you've read? Well, then here's more:
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tricia0711
Generally I agree with your premise that the President does not control the economy. The economy ebbs and flows from growth to recession in cycles that are driven by highly complex market mechanisms that are manifestations of our collective human behavior.
But there are lots of policies that the President can do that make the economy better or worse. As you noted, they can ease regulation or increase regulations. They (with Congress) can raise or lower taxes.
They can also flood the country with cheap immigrant labor which drives down wages and raises unemployment.
They can encourage free trade deals or impose trade barriers.
They can indirectly influence the Federal Reserve and therefore the money supply causing monetary expanision or contraction. Excessive monetary expansion causes inflation.
They can start wars. Wars have a tremendous economic stimulous effect. They also almost always end with an economic hangover.
And perhaps the most important thing Presidents can do is talk. The economy is largely driven by our collective emotions and somewhat irrational beliefs about what the future holds and these emotions get translated into behavior. A good President can express a sense of optimism that sways the national psychy. As much as I despised him, President Clinton had a certain genious for this "happy talk". President Bush tried but he simply lacked the ability to speak coherently on any topic.
I fear that people are going to get what they asked for. People want Washington to fix the economy and in the last few months the government has taken huge steps in the direction of siezing control. Unforturnately, with the exception of collecting taxes and spending money, our government is a miserable failure at everything it tries. I think people are going to find out that our new command and control economy is less than satisfactory. Even more unfortunately, it is going to be very difficult to reverse course.