David Stockman: "The Great Deformation"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-04-03/david-stockman-great-deformation
David Stockman, the former budget director under President Ronald Reagan, says the economy will not improve until the United States rethinks its habits of borrowing, spending and money printing. His new book, “The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America,” argues that Washington has enabled Wall Street to fuel financial bubbles and alter the markets, all while crushing middle class families.
Guests
David Stockman
former Republican Congressman from Michigan and budget director during the Reagan administration.
Read An Excerpt
From "The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America" by David A. Stockman. Published on April 2, 2013, by PublicAffairs. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
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I usually don't approve of posting Comments before a show airs, so I'm breaking my own "rule". But this is more a Comment about the guest, than about what he may or may not say. (Which I look forward to hearing.)
Remember, Stockman is one of the people who foisted "Reaganomics" on us. (A.K.A. "Supply Side Economics", or "Voodoo Economics"). This started the Republican obsession with tax cuts as the solution to everything, declaring that "the budget would take care of itself". (Or, more accurately, that tax cuts would produce greater revenues, thus balancing the budget even while allowing spending to stay the same.)
Of course, this has been proven untrue, and even Stockman had the honesty, and decency, both to admit this, and to further admit that the whole "policy" was really a dodge and a hoax to start with. It's true purpose was to cause deficits, and then use those deficits as a reason to "shrink the size of the government". (Translation: The wealthier you are, the more money you keep. The poorer you are, the more of those programs you need to survive get taken away.)
Had America been told the truth to start with, Reaganomics might never have made it out of Congress alive!
Here in Ohio,we also have had "Supply Side",aka,"Trickle Down" economics.. It has failed miserably here as well.In Ohio the Republican Party rules. Democrats are not a factor. Bob Taft,our former Republican Governor gave 4 HUGE tax breaks,the first 3 were to corporations and the wealthy. BOOM. It created an $8 BILLION debt...aaaand....cost us 500,000 jobs.. Ohio was in a deep recession far earlier the the rest of America. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County sued to get these crooked mortgages stopped,and was denied standing by Ohio`s Supreme Court,that was around Y2K.. Another high court corrupted by big business,and big cash.
This is a winner take all scheme.. A heads I win,tails you loose type of deal.. The same one found in Washington DC,Argentina,Greece,Iceland,California,Bolivia,name the country,the scam`s the same..
Etaoin: I usually don't approve of "communists" (which you've revealed yourself to be by blasphemy against Holy Jesus Reagan) but I totally agree that Stockman is a halfass. The average listener can handle the truth, but David Stockman can't. He found his woodshed activity erotic I guess. Who else on this page fantasizes a Sandusky with Big Daddy Ron? I think I know.
Billybob: Let's put a 15 mile per day speed limit on P-tardy governors. They can't drive 55 on the Interstate, maybe not even 25 without wandering onto the grass. And their acolytes need their licenses revoked, need to bend over and smell the turdblossoms. This would result in enormous fuel conservation by leaving the sludge underground.
Uncle Goody knew Reagan and says he was demented before becoming California governor. He says Ron was like a human tape recorder or a parrot rattling off the same quips repeatedly, often inappropriately. Ron lacked any capacity to comprehend his espoused policies by the time he was 50. His hearing aides were staffed by prompters. No one required a teleprompter more.
I find it interesting that it was Hinckley’s attack on Reagan that ultimately granted the “political capital” to enable Reagan to push through his “trickle-down” proposals through congress.
Lots of “fuzzy math” going on back then, much of it perpetuated by Stockman.
Reagan plan originally proposed that 83 deficit would be zero (and would reduce national debt), but it was actually on it’s way to 6.3% of GDP- a peacetime record that still stands.
National debt, of course, tripled.
"(The economy) did recover after 1982, but mainly because the Federal Reserve defeated inflation.” -Stockman (2011)
In other words, It wasn’t the tax cuts, but cutting interest rates from 21% (under Carter) down to 7% is what is most responsible for ending the recession (greatest since Depression), which had occurred shortly after "Economic Recovery Tax Act" was passed on July 29, 1981.
For all that, STILL GNP grew at a lower rate under Reagan than under Carter.
It seems Stockman has come a long way as far as trying to redeem himself for his part in fiscal policy which has wrought so much long term damage to this country's long term fiscal welfare.
He seems to do what he can to speak 'truth to power", but unfortunately has not seemed to receive that much press coverage for his efforts.
"The Republican Party has totally abdicated its job…. to act as the guardian of fiscal discipline and responsibility. …(And is) on an anti-tax jihad – one that benefits the prosperous classes."- Stockman- 2011
Stockman (after leaving office in '85), in a closed meeting with board of NY stock exchange:
“We are wantonly violating cardinal rule of sound public finance: gov must extract from people in taxes what they dispense in benefits, services, and protections…. If Securities and Exchange Commission had jurisdiction over executive and legislative branches, many of us would be in jail.”
Drew- Fuzzy math is par for the course in American economics. The first thing children are taught is that wealth bestows magical powers. Many Southern Baptists think our sacred private property Constitution is part of the Bible, and they often search for verses about supply and demand. Sadism is at the core of the Austerity Stockman preaches. Corrupt government policy is responsible for our degenerate wealth and income gap. It's like a Reagan golem is still steering the Exxon Valdez.
Communists, socialists, fascists and Marxist's, it's noteworthy how the left desperately tries to distance itself from the ism's that best describes themselves and their political goals. I suppose the mountains of dead people that got in the way of these political movements in the past might have something to do with it.
Yeah I know, it's different this time.
The Democrats say Reagan ruined the economy but never mention the Democrats controlled congress in the 80's. They talk about Clinton's surpluses and never mention the Republican controlled congress in the 90's. They tell us how awful Bush was in the 2000's and never mention they voted for both wars and they had both houses of congress from 2006 to 2010. They say Obama is held back from enacting his wonderful policies by Republicans even though he had both houses of congress for the first two years of his presidency. In other words it's all Republicans fault all of the time.
The only commonality is that both political parties spend more than the economy can bear at any given moment. You can thank Ross Perot for that brief moment of sanity in the 90's.
The greatest Socialist in human history was a mythical figure,named Robin Hood... But "Trickle Down",or "Supply Side" economics is the very very real strategy of reverse Robin Hood.... Stealing the wealth of the working class,and hiding that wealth in Swiss Banks..
The Magna Carta,the Preamble to the Constitution,the Constitution,and the Bill of Rights... are Socialist documents,declaring "WE THE PEOPLE" are in charge..Thus the contorted and twisted logic of "CORPORATION ARE PEOPLE"...
Ayn Rand - Individual Rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqItG3suqok
Ayn Rand - Liberty vs Socialism/ Statism .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6LBegPh3m8
Billybob- You missed the train, buddy. Guns are people too and they talk. (90% support background checks but Congress wants to see the money.) Soon guns'll vote. (Glocks for Biden?)
Seems like our opponents worship the braindead and have a lot of isms in their britches torturing them. If you lie down with corpses you've got to expect worms. This ain't about party politics anymore than it is about a sleepover. Both parties are in the grave up to their necks. Like John W. Dean, Dave Stockman is out there on a handcar trying to catch a ghost train. Diane is broadcasting day before yesterday's news.
Remember those vuvuzelas from the olympics and soccer etc. ?
Lots of noise, hot air, and spit.
When some resort to mere name-calling, even the vuvuzelas have more intelligent discourse to offer.
Lumping together labels from vastly different "isms" into a single line of diatribes is downright "HI-larious", as my former boss, Ross Perot, would say. (e.g. Mussolini and Marx in the same epithet.)
I remember a more polite one one from 3rd grade (private school):
"Ahhh, y'er mother wears combat boots!!"
Stockman is saying what Ron Paul has been saying for decades!
Ron Paul also condemned both parties for unsustainable deficit spending and printing "funny money" and the federal reserve for enabling this whole Ponzi scheme.
What are David Stockman's comments on this?
Pancake wrote: “Like John W. Dean, Dave Stockman is out there on a handcar trying to catch a ghost train. Diane is broadcasting day before yesterday's news.”
It’s all yesterday’s news,
There are still lots of folks in our country that STILL believe in Supply-side economics. There are still folks who believe Sadaam had something to do with 9/11, for that matter. History is relevant. Currently in Congress there is one party whose budget plan declares revenue that will be created by lowering taxes on wealthy. The other party plan claims the opposite. Both can’t be true. . There is a push in Congress to drop corporate rates to 25%, I guess in the interests of recreating all the same conditions that were had before Depression hit.
The discussion is still relevant.
In any case it sounds like Stockman’s book is about PRESENT economy.
David Stockman is spot on. He has been for years. Unfortunately, when I listen to him, he reminds me of Cassandra, prophecying the truth and no one will listen.
That George Bush was clueless about the economy should not be surprising considering his past management of baseball team and business. That Barack Obama would spend and create huge deficits shouldn't be surprising since he has no business experience at all.
Whatever happened to personal responsibility? And since corporations are people, too, that includes them? Are 'we, the people' supposed to be responsible for removing the consequences of everyone's bad decisions?
Can you really trust an analyst who represents Krugman's economic philosophy as "You can never have too much debt" to let facts get in the way of ANY of his opinions? Mr. Stockman's credibility ended as soon as he uttered that dishonest statement.
Did Stockman just say "If it's too big to fail, it's too big to exist?
Damn! Maybe I should sue for plagiarism, I've been saying the same thing for years!
Lobbyists handing out cash by the wheelbarrow may be a problem.. Also a Reagan creation.. However the Conservative 5 on the Supreme Court say this bribery,isn`t bribery,but free speech..Reagan economics was a complete and everlasting failure.Unemployment was never under 7%.
EVERYTHING BAD WE FEEL TODAY,HAS IT`S ROOTS IN THE REAGAN POLICY.
Reagan asked,'are you better off today'...NO WE WERE NOT..And it`s been all down hill since.Without good paying union middle class jobs,the worker`s share of GDP in the lowest since record keeping began..Only 43.5%
If interest rates go up wouldn't home prices fall which would harm younger people where they majority of their assets are held.
I agree - Reaganomics has been discredited.n Another factor was the "union busting" started by the Reaganites. Another step in separating the rich from the rest of us.
I know that Diane has a fair and balanced show but I am disappointed that she has this man as a guest. It seems to give him credibility and it will help him sell books - ill earned money.
Ronny Raygun called Vietnam "America's greatest experiment." We're not supposed to be experimenting on people. Putting that aside, the problem in America is neither debt nor deficits, it's poverty. Both parties, Rethuglicans more than Democrats have caused the greatest disparities in wealth America has ever seen. Between union busting, "right-to-work laws" and deregulation of energy that led directly to Enron type machinations, not to mention stigmatizing poverty we're in the situation we see today. He's talking about removing FDIC. What about the poor depositor who's money disappears through bank scams. Where are we supposed to safely put our money; under the mattress? I'm sorry. By any objective measure Ronny Raygun was the 2nd worst President this country ever had behind Shrub. Under Raygun there was such a concentration of wealth through mergers and acquisitions, the ("greed is good") era that the so-called "free market" disappeared. There's no free
market when the markets are controlled by a small percentage of wealthy individuals and corporations.
Sent from my iPod
Pancake Rankin on April 2, 2013 @ 12:09 pm wrote: “Etaoin: I usually don't approve of "communists"”
This is a red letter day, you and “freedom or welfare” agree on something! (I’m a “commie”.)
;-)
Seriously, though, I disagree that Stockman’s halfassed. Instead, I think he’s half-correct (and clearly no longer “right”). The point of my first Comment (and so far his statements on the show indicate I was prescient) is that he doesn’t fully take individual responsibility for his own part in all this. (Plus, to some extent, he has yet to free himself from the ideology of Reaganism.)
(I’m afraid I have no idea what “a Sandusky with Big Daddy Ron” is supposed to mean - so I can’t respond to that.)
As for speculation on “Saint Reagan’s” mental condition - who cares? Is it any better to think a man in complete possession of his faculties could claim trees cause more pollution than humans, and that Nazis buried in Bitburg Cemetery were Hitler’s “victims” too? The real question is how the American people could support such a man - twice.
I’ll give them a pass for choosing him over Carter, the latter’s Presidency was less than stellar (so to speak). But (and to return to my complaint about Stockman), how could they choose Reagan over Mondale? One answer: because the latter dared tell America the truth, we needed to raise taxes. He got slaughtered, and politicians learned that lesson, and have been following it ever since. (And who was part of the Reagan Administration back then? David Stockman.)
Should I call/contact my bank [USAA, for military families] and ask them to start paying even a modest interest rate? currently it's under one percent.
While I applaud Mr. Stockman’s attempt to be even handed (such as properly blaming the Reaganauts for our poisonous policy of mindless tax-cuts, borrow and spending), the fact is ideology remains very much part of what he says.
He underplays his own part in promoting “Voodoo Economics” (a major part of the problem), and he promotes his own version of the mindless “deregulation” mania which was a major cause of our Great Recession.
No, we can’t leave everything to the “free market”. Not only did it never truly exist (the government has always meddled in economics and gave aid to the “favored few” - consider the history of the railroads, and the oil industry), but his proposal for dealing with that Recession would only have made things worse. Incredibly, he denies that doing nothing would have only increased the disaster - even as our economy was collapsing because we were doing nothing!
The problem with TARP isn’t that it existed, but the way it existed. When it was being considered I wrote the President, and the leaders of Congress, to say that while I reluctantly agreed for the necessity of such a program, I had three conditions:
1) There should be no blank check.
2) The money should be limited to repairing the damage (none of it spent on bonuses for the fools who caused the problems, for example).
3) The companies responsible should be broken up, and those responsible in them should be fired.
In short, anything “too big to fail”, was too big to exist, and the TARP should have been a form of structured, legislative Bankruptcy, with heavy application of Anti-Trust policy.
Sadly, all of that was ignored.
Diane should have Paul Krugman and Robert Reich on her show to rebut this nonsense. Either Stockman is deliberately mischaracterizing what Professor Krugman's policy suggestions are or more likely he simply doesn't understand them. Professor Krugman's economic theories may well be too complex for Stockman to grasp. Repeal the income tax? Repeal the minimum wage? Put in a consumption tax? How is he going to tax the wealthy who would make their major purchases overseas. We already have a consumption tax that hurts thr middle class and the poor. It's called a sales tax. So he thinks the minimum wage should be repealed and employers should be allowed to pay workers below subsistance wages with the taxpayer making up the difference? Why? All this does is increase wealth disparity with the taxpayer supplementing the obscene wealth of the 1%. Stockman's ideas, if implemented, will only increase the poverty of the American people. He's just bringing us Raygunomics 2.0
Reagan`s policy in the 1980`s destroyed the union wage base. Today what is Mr.Stockman`s plan,destroy the minimum wage..?? Seems a lot like the old Reaganomics to me.. Do not tax the wealthy,tax the poor... That is deja vu all over again..
Don`t tell me about the same old failed plan... Tell Americans what the country would look like,should we opt for the Conservative suicide plan..??
Why do Conservatives consider Capitalism a form or government..?? Laser faire capitalism is not new.It works best along side DICTATORSHIPS,fascist or communist.Right or left,makes no difference,DICTATORSHIPS make laser faire capitalism,work best.That is the goal of Conservatism
Pancake Rankin on April 2, 2013 @ 12:17 pm wrote: “Many Southern Baptists think our sacred private property Constitution. . . .”
Please don’t blame the Constitution for the way some “conservatives” misuse and misunderstand it, anymore than the Bible is to blame for how they twist it.
There’s nothing “sacred” about property in the Constitution. Quite the contrary, there are many provisions which clearly allow government interference with property. With a warrant the government can enter your home uninvited, and seize what it finds there. Provided Due Process is satisfied, you can be deprived of your property. And the power of Eminent Domain, the power to take your property for public purposes (such as building an Interstate Highway), is allowed provided you are paid “just compensation” (the amount determined by the government, of course). That hardly sounds “sacred” to me!
P.S. - I do hope “freedom or welfare” is noting all the ways in which we differ.
freedom or welfare on April 2, 2013 @ 12:54 pm wrote: “Communists, socialists, fascists and Marxist's, it's noteworthy how the left desperately tries to distance itself from the ism's that best describes themselves and their political goals.”
How typical, FOW delivers a tirade that really has nothing to do with the topic. (Is he calling Stockman a Communist, Socialist, Fascist, or Marxist?) But which does serve to show his ideological blindness and ignorance.
FACT: Marxism is a form of Communism, so throwing that term in adds nothing to your ranting. (Except, perhaps, to raise the question why didn’t you also include Leninism, Trotskyism, or Maoism. Could it be you support such ideologies?)
FACT: Fascism is an ideology of the “right”, not the “left”. I know conservative mouthpieces like Jonah Goldberg try desperately to deny the distinction, but the fact is during the 1930’s both Mussolini and Hitler found far more friends on the American “right” than the “left”. (Actually, they found none among the latter.
Oh, and speaking of the “left” - care to explain why it was “leftist” FDR who led us in the fight against Fascism and Nazism? (World War II, ever hear of it?)
freedom or welfare on April 2, 2013 @ 12:54 pm wrote: “The Democrats say Reagan ruined the economy but never mention the Democrats controlled congress in the 80's.”
Probably because they didn’t.
For Reagan’s first six years (1981 through 1986) the Republicans controlled the Senate. Only in his last two years did the Democratic Party control both houses (and the damage was done by then).
Then there’s the Presidential Veto. Reagan used it 78 times, and was overridden only 9 times (a success rate of more than 88%).
Yeah, sounds like the Democrats were in complete control.
Source: The World Almanac of 2010, page 439.
Oh, and here’s another fun fact for you: know when the deficit grew the most during Reagan’s years? 1982 and 1983 - when the Republicans controlled the Senate. Know when it grew the least? In 1987, when the Democratic Party regained control.
(Same source, page 63.)
Etaoin Shrdlu wrote:"Please don’t blame the Constitution for the way some “conservatives” misuse and misunderstand it, anymore than the Bible is to blame for how they twist it."
I do not recall you ever, under any circumstances siding with individual rights over the authority of the state on any issue. Maybe you prefer the label of Statist. You seem from my perspective to be all about collective rights and not individual rights, this belief in my view is contrary to the founding principals of our country.