The Club for Governors Who Cheat

Mark Sanford apparently is a member:"South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has admitted to having an extramarital affair..."

Now every playboy and wannabe playgirl out there that justifies their own promiscuity in the name of convenience believing that fidelity and monogamy are "impossible" will have another huge poster child. They'll say that living with one person their whole lives to exclusion of all others is "just talk." Even those that preach it can't live it.

To add to the damage Governor Sanford has done, no one is talking about the issue that he was championing anymore - rejecting the concept of a stimulus.

The harm that world wide massive government spending will do this world will be felt for decades. Mr Sanford was one of the few that seemed to buck the trend and fight against the sound of "one hand clapping" in the global world.

Unfortunately Mr Sanford apparently was dishonest for at least year when he talked about "family values." It's unclear how dishonest he was with anything else.

Stimulus Duh

Stimulus money mispent? Duh:
"The problem with Baird and his minions is that they are ignoring the process in place to determine where the money should go — a process predicated by previous political scandals. The stink that is going to waft out of the “stimulus” project should make the Libs’ previous troubles seem minor in comparison."(link)

When you're trying to spend tens of billions of dollars in a span of months I'm thinking the chances of mistakes are pretty high.

Heck - I don't even think governments can spend money wisely when they take their time let alone when everyone is in panic mode!

Not So Great Depression

Donald Marron has created a superb visualization comparing the great depression to the current financial crisis with surprising results:

As a comparison to Canadian numbers... Canadian GDP contracted 27.7% during the great depression. The annualized GDP drop we've been having over the last couple quarters is somewhere near 5%.

One quick criticism - If this downturn ends up lasting 5 years, a 5% drop a year quickly turns into a great depression when it's adds up to a 25% drop.

The visualization above is based on current projections of an economic contraction lasting at most a year.

h/t Political Math

Tough

Big City mayors are concerned:
Canada's big cities are sounding a national alarm that Ottawa is moving so slowly on spending infrastructure stimulus dollars that projects meant to cushion the blow of the recession will likely not start until next summer – when the downturn is expected to be over.(link)

If we can't get the money out time I'll start doing cart wheels.

This so-called "stimulus" spending is the result of nothing more than shear untamed panic. Nothing could be better if the government couldn't spend it.

No reasonable Canadian, after getting laid off, in a bad economy, would start spending more money that he/she didn't have.

I don't think governments should behave any differently.

Let Big City mayors pay for their own roads.

Bailout This


h/t Acton