The meaning of "quickly"

by Russ Roberts on November 20, 2008

The Senate and the Washington Post use "quickly" differently than I do:

Nearly every aspect of the Treasury Department’s
$700 billion bailout program has sparked fierce debate except for one:
the need to establish a strong watchdog agency as swiftly as possible.

The Senate Banking Committee yesterday held a confirmation hearing for Neil M. Barofsky, the White House
nominee to be special inspector general for the plan, and members were
nearly unanimous in their praise for his work as a federal prosecutor
in New York. Several explicitly said they would vote for him.

"Clearly, we want to have you on the job as fast as we can," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who chairs the committee.

I think Paulson has already spent $290 billion of the first $350 billion allocated to him. He doesn’t plan to spend any more. It’s seems the watchdog is a little late getting on the job, don’t you think?

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Christopher_Renner

That TR quote implies that we are body parts, not children. Body parts comprise the whole, and the whole is comprised of body parts.

Children, on the other hand, are individuals under the more-or-less unrestricted authority of their parents, strictly for the temporary period of their childhood.

Governmental authority has no such temporary nature, and has always done evil the more unrestricted it has been.

Also, workers always get a reward for doing good works. This is usually referred to in economics by the technical term "Wages".

muirgeo

I am not a child of the US government.

Posted by: Kevin

Yeah you are.

"The government is us; we are the government, you and I."

Theodore Roosevelt

Babinich

muirgeo says:

"Obama has a very specific idea which is based on Keyensian theory of getting dollars to circulate to stimulate the economy."

The market is forward looking. If what you say is true, the market has a dismal view on the next administration's leadership.

muirgeo continues:

"Rewarding children (or workers) for doing good works."

One does this by:

*Allowing one to keep more of their money

*Reducing the the tax on capital.

Oil Shock

These analogies are silly.

I hope Muirgeo is not sending his kids to sweatshop and then taking away 50% of their slave wages, in order to live like a parasite. Redistributing the loot between him and his wife.

Kevin

I am not a child of the US government.

Russ Roberts

muirgeo,

I think you mean to leave this comment on the other post...

I might be wrong about the investor climate. It's very hard to know. As for the Keynesian strategy, we're currently spending hundreds of billions more than we collect in taxes. We'll see if a few extra hundred billion helps. It will be very interested.

FWIW, I am not a laissez-faire parent. But sometimes doing nothing is the right strategy even with kids.

muirgeo

"What if markets are spooked by the specter of government spending without any constraints? What if doing whatever it takes means doing less, rather than more?

....

Nobody knows what it takes to move the economy forward right now."

Russ,

Can you provide any evidence that markets are faltering more from the specter of government intervention then the fact that many major players still have huge dollar amounts of toxic paper that is of unknown value and may loose more value as more mortgages default in the near future?

Also if nobody has any idea of what it will take to move the economy forward how is the idea of doing nothing somehow a better idea? Obama has a very specific idea which is based on Keyensian theory of getting dollars to circulate to stimulate the economy. Hopefully, IMO he's learn FDR's problem was likely too little stimulus.

Finally, as a pediatrician, I'll tell you that laissez faire parenting is not a good idea. Rewarding children (or workers) for doing good works.