Reich: Spend Now or Else

I've been bearish for a few years now, (4.00 / 2)

and acting accordingly, which has, in part, led to a new job and new house.  30-year fixed rate mortgage on a place that, even if home values continue to decline, I likely will not go underwater on. Fossil fuels do not heat my home.

Carpooling to work.  Staking out a bigger garden at home. I am fairly worried about food and gas prices - even the most fiscally disciplined can't really do much about that.

If I had the money, I'd put in a small wind turbine. I hope to harvest more downed timber from my woods to put in the woodstove.  I've got a couple of sheep coming, who can mow my lawn and fertilize the garden and be a source of wool.

No TV, which means no cable/satellite payments. I only use a cell phone for emergencies, and so I buy a trifling amount of pre-paid minutes and keep it in the car.

I eat out a lot less, I got out a lot less.

Of course a lot of this could just mean I'm becoming a misanthropic monk and have little to do with the economy :)

birch, finch, beech

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by: Dean Barker @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 22:21:51 PM CDT

Clothesline (4.00 / 2)

We are going to put in a clothesline, good for the electric bill and the environment. (There's a whole clothesline website if you are wondering)

I've given up for the most part my diet coke and polar seltzer habit which saves a few bucks every week and again is more friendly to the the environment and to me.

Personal cell phone may go come renewal time, though my inner consumer/geek is jonesing for an iphone.

Hope > Fear




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by: Mike Hoefer @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 23:00:59 PM CDT

More debt? More debt that will be owed to foreign governments and entities from whom we can't tax it all back? (4.00 / 2)

He's the economist, not me, but that doesn't sound good from my angle.

--
@DougLindner

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 23:31:19 PM CDT

That was exactly the thinking (0.00 / 0)

that led to the Great Depression. Rejecting that thinking pulled us out of it.

Doesn't mean that Keynsian stimulus is needed now - but it means that you shouldn't trust that simple, appealing logic.

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by: elwood @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 05:12:49 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

My thinking or Reich's? (0.00 / 0)

--
@DougLindner

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 12:06:30 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Elwood alleges your thinking (0.00 / 0)

I don't think that's a fair assessment, though. An anti-debt attitude didn't exactly "lead" to the Great Depression, but increased spending was one policy tool that people thought should have been used earlier in response to it.

We already deficit spend, a lot. Especially when you include off-budget things like the Iraq war. I don't know how much more Keynsian stimulus we need, when it hasn't done us too much good in the first place.

I will make a point of saying here that the anti-trade Smoot-Hawley tariff was done in reaction the beginnings of the Great Depression and by most accounts made things worse. That's worth keeping in mind when anti-trade rhetoric begins to sound more appealing if the economy continues to slide.

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by: Alex Gallichon @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 12:22:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

There's a big difference between the deficit spending of that era and the current kind. (0.00 / 0)

When the debt is owed to Americans, when it's 'kept in the family', so to speak, we can tax it back and essentially have the wealthy repay themselves.  When it's owed to foreigners, that money is gone, and it's not coming back.

--
@DougLindner

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 13:29:22 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'm no economist (0.00 / 0)

I think Reich's approach is that Fed Gov is the only "consumer" large enough to make a difference based on our current state.

Hope > Fear




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by: Mike Hoefer @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 19:06:15 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I got that (0.00 / 0)

But the Federal Government is all of us, and eventually that bill comes back.  Like I said before, because the debt isn't kept in America, we can't just tax it back, so the real consumer is my generation, and the next, and the next.

--
@DougLindner

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 20:43:04 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Reich might not be either (0.00 / 0)

He is definitely a lawyer, but I have been told that he is not an economist, and I took some boss scammin' time to confirm/deny that, but no luck.
http://www.robertreich.org/rei...

Reich has been a member of the faculties of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and of Brandeis University. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

That's not to say that he's wrong about this; he might be right.

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by: JimC @ Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 08:58:28 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I don't agree with Reich's Prescription, but. . . . (4.00 / 1)

Dartmouth '68 -- Go Green, baby!

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 22:28:18 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I was about to say... (0.00 / 0)

He spent four years in New Hampshire?  That certainly lends credibility to his argument.

--
@DougLindner

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 22:40:43 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I have hauled (4.00 / 1)

about 3 cords of wood to my dooryard. Next I will split it and stack it. I'm also culling some trees and cleaning up some dead wood on our property. I am hopeful that despite the spike in fuel prices I will actually spend less heating our home this coming winter than last.

Also my wife recently bought a 120 MPG scooter for communting from Newbury to Lebanon. It takes her three times as long to get to and from work but in addition to the savings, it's damn fun to drive, and her new route (it's not legal on the interstate) includes a couple of miles through the woods next to the Mascoma River, a beautiful area that she'd otherwise probably never have seen.

And despite everything there remains within me a tiny little bit of optimism that refuses to leave,and when I come across things like the links below it announces, "See! See! Life WILL get better as soon as these things come to fruition." The curmudgeon in me does its very best to stomp on that little voice but it persists. And how could it not. Click on these links and see if the little optimism within you doesn't take notice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
and here's the car I want as soon as it becomes available in NH  300 MPG!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

...the Doo Dah Man once told me you've got to play your hand. Sometimes the cards ain't worth a dime if you don't lay 'em down.

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by: rambler american @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 06:02:29 AM CDT

That Aptera Car is cool (4.00 / 2)

There is some good that comes out of this pinch, it makes it more worthwhile to develop and purchase alternatives.

Hope > Fear




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by: Mike Hoefer @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 08:07:26 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

PSNH rates up 5.7% today (0.00 / 0)

Heard on on NHPR this AM

Hope > Fear




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by: Mike Hoefer @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 08:08:08 AM CDT