Despite your zingers, a poll of recognized economists from the most prestigious universities in the US yielded zero support for the gold standard.
I guess all those economists also love the Great Depression too, right?
The economy since the creation of the Fed is vastly prefereable to the recurring bank and currency panics of the gold standard, yes.
I don’t want the expansionary boom of the 1920’s reintroduced smart guy. That’s not my idea of laissez-faire.
The panics went away because of FDIC, so idk why you are linking them to the creation of the Fed. You are aware there were banking panics after the Fed and before FDIC, right?
R.W. Goldsmith via Friedman and Schwartz
The highest decadal rate [ of growth of real reproducible tangivle wealth per head from 1805-1950] for about ten years was apparently reached in the eighties with 3.8 per cent."
Rothbard on the issue:
Bring back the roaring (18)80’s!!
Could this be why some Republicans are unwilling to negotiate? We just cut a deal on taxes and now Obama wants more tax hikes before he cuts spending! How long did the “deal” last? Why should we trust him in the future?
You are aware that banking panics were more frequent and more severe before the Fed, right?
What is the problem? If Republicans want spending cuts they have to agree to tax hikes, that’s what negotiating is all about. Are you saying Republicans are unwilling to negotiate because they won’t get everything their way?
Oh, you’re quoting Milton Friedman? Allow me to do the same: “I regard a return to a gold standard as neither desirable nor feasible.”
It has nothing to do with trust. The “deal”, such as it was, was a deal on taxes. Period. It made no promises about future spending cuts, the sequester, or the debt ceiling. There were offers on those issues, including cuts to Social Security, but Boehner couldn’t get the votes - so we get the stop-gap deal instead that only dealt with taxes.
Now the GOP can negotiate on the other issues however they like. The President has said he won’t negotiate on the debt ceiling and will only sign a clean bill. We shall see. The sequester gores oxen on both sides, but my hunch is that the GOP is a bit more desperate to change it than the Democrats (particularly if the military cuts get replaced by entitlement ones), but again, we shall see.
You seem to think that because the GOP kinda got rolled in these negotiations that somehow Obama has to get rolled in the next round. That’s not really how these things work…
That’s what all the Republicans on the talk shows are saying. They all believe that the compromise takes revenue off the table now, and any future agreements will be all spending cuts. And so it goes…
We already negotiated and agreed on tax hikes! Is this the old bait and switch? Again, if this is how Obama “negotiates” I am going to sign up for the Tea Party.
So lemme understand: This negotiation was ONLY about tax rates, nothing more. The next negotiation about spending cuts, however, is also about hiking tax rates?
Yep. Everything is on the table. That’s why it was such a bad deal for conservatives.
This negotiation was about tax rates and spending cuts. The compromise cut spending and increased taxes. Where did you get the idea it was the last spending cut or tax hike ever? 
You do understand why those type of negotiating tactics make the Tea Party seem like they were right all along, don’t you?
Imagine I go to a car dealership to buy a 2013 Nissan Altima. Sticker price is $23k. I offer $20k. We negotiate and come to an agreement on $21,500.
I go to pick up my car and the dealer says, “Whoa, we were just negotiating on price. I can sell you a 2013 Ford Focus unless you put more dealer revenue on the table and pay your fair share.”
Disingenuous? You bet. Plus how will Obama get any Republican votes on more taxes? The only leverage he had was the fact that middle class taxes would increase. Now that they are permanent, he won’t get a single GOP vote in the House. It looks like off to the sequester we go.
We compromised. Obama didn’t.
What spending cuts? And while not ever, I thought it would be the last tax hike for at least two months. :rolleyes:
I’m beginning to wonder if you understand how negotiations work. There is generally some impetus to begin negotiation, and a default “do nothing” option. Then the baseline is moved from there until an agreement is reached that changes reality from “do nothing” to whatever was agreed upon.
The baseline of 1/1/13 was higher tax rates across the board, expiration of the payroll tax cut, expiration of the AMT fix, much higher estate tax rates, expiration of unemployment benefits, and sequestration of defense spending and Medicare provider payments. From this baseline we moved to permanent tax rates for folks under $400k/$450k, lower estate tax rates, 1-year extension of unemployment, and a two-month delay of sequestration (amongst other things). If you think the GOP could have done better, OK, but that negotiation is done.
The next point at which the “do nothing” reality compels negotiation is circa 2/15/2013. At that point the sequestration goes in to effect (again cutting defense and Medicare provider payments) and the debt ceiling emergency provisions are exhausted and either we raise the limit or we have a partial government shutdown.
The GOP can very well demand only spending cuts in exchange for changing either part of this “do nothing”. But Obama is saying he will not agree to that. That’s called negotiation.
Saying Obama didn’t compromise is a lie - he negotiated from $250k to $450k, dropped a debt ceiling hike, and dropped an extension of the payroll tax cut, all to get the GOP on board.
ETA: Oh, and Obama also compromised on the estate tax which has both a lower rate and a higher exemption than he wanted.
There is nothing anybody can do to make the Tea Partiers look like they were right about anything. They believe that the current historic tax rates are too high, government should not do anything, and that a black man cannot be president. But mostly the last one.
That’s a fair assessment of holding the debt ceiling hostage until the other party agrees to cut spending that you’ve already voted on. “Whoa, not so fast buddy. You know that bill we passed that lets us spend X amount of dollars on defense and entitlements? You can’t actually spend it: psych!”