Conservatives have no ideas what to do about recessions

POSTED BY: kpo
UPDATED: Monday, March 9, 2026 17:30
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KPO

Tuesday, December 17, 2013 6:32 AM

Very good article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/conservatives-have-no-idea-what-to-do-a
bout-recessions-2013-12#ixzz2ngv5fJ4P

Quote:
To be clear, conservatives absolutely do have an economic policy agenda. They favor lower taxes, less regulation, government spending cuts, more domestic energy production, school choice, free trade, and low inflation. They often cite these policies as ones that might alleviate recession and speed recovery. They favor these policies now, they favored them in 2008, and they favored them in 2004.

That is, conservatives favor the same set of economic policies when the economy is weak and when it is strong; when unemployment is high and when it is low; when few homeowners are facing foreclosure and when many are. The implication is that conservatives believe there is nothing in particular the government should do about economic cycles.

Well conservatives, is it true?

GEEZER

Tuesday, December 17, 2013 9:12 AM

Let's see.

Probably depends on where you start. Up until the 1930's the Democrats were more conservative than the Progressive Republicans.

Looking at Wikipedia, recessions seem to occur pretty regularly in periods when both Democrats and Republicans have the power. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States

the next to last recession, per Wiki, was from March to November 2001, was caused mostly by the collapse of the dot.com bubble, and would have ended sooner if not for the Sept. 11th attacks. Bush II was inaugurated in January 2001, so that recession ended early in his presidency.

The latest was Dec. 2007 to June 2009, and was caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis. If you consider that the recession ended in June 2009, that was early in Pres. Obama's administration.

Taking the long view, recessions have occurred, and ended, in both Democratic and Republican administrations.

ETA: Then again, I might ask why we should care about Josh Barros' opinion, since he's just one guy. But I prefer to discuss the actual issue.

How 'bout you, KPO?

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

KPO

Thursday, December 19, 2013 4:00 AM

The article is about modern conservatives and their policies (or lack thereof) for dealing with recessions. However, the point applies just as well to libertarians, like yourself.

It should be noted that Republicans in the past have embraced Keynesianism (notably Nixon, but also Bush2, who spent money in his 2002 stimulus) - which no Republican could get away with today.

So what policies do the GOP of today (or libertarians) have to deal with recessions? Any? Or are economic downturns just something to be accepted and fatalistically endured?

It's not personal. It's just war.

STORYMARK

Thursday, December 19, 2013 10:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
Very good article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/conservatives-have-no-idea-what-to-do-a
bout-recessions-2013-12#ixzz2ngv5fJ4P

Quote:
To be clear, conservatives absolutely do have an economic policy agenda. They favor lower taxes, less regulation, government spending cuts, more domestic energy production, school choice, free trade, and low inflation. They often cite these policies as ones that might alleviate recession and speed recovery. They favor these policies now, they favored them in 2008, and they favored them in 2004.

That is, conservatives favor the same set of economic policies when the economy is weak and when it is strong; when unemployment is high and when it is low; when few homeowners are facing foreclosure and when many are. The implication is that conservatives believe there is nothing in particular the government should do about economic cycles.

Well conservatives, is it true?

Definition of insanity... so on and so forth...

No big surprise here.

Quote:

So what policies do the GOP of today (or libertarians) have to deal with recessions? Any? Or are economic downturns just something to be accepted and fatalistically endured?

No conservatives seem to want to address the question either.

Also not surprising.

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

KPO

Friday, December 20, 2013 12:19 AM

Quote:
No conservatives seem to want to address the question either.

Also not surprising.

Luckily there's a thread for just that

It's not personal. It's just war.

GEEZER

Friday, December 20, 2013 7:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
The article is about modern conservatives and their policies (or lack thereof) for dealing with recessions. However, the point applies just as well to libertarians, like yourself.

It should be noted that Republicans in the past have embraced Keynesianism (notably Nixon, but also Bush2, who spent money in his 2002 stimulus) - which no Republican could get away with today.

So what policies do the GOP of today (or libertarians) have to deal with recessions? Any? Or are economic downturns just something to be accepted and fatalistically endured?

Okay.
So let's look at beginning of the article which shows the liberal response to recession, that somehow got left out originally.

Quote:
For the last five years, liberals have promoted three main economic policies to shorten or ameliorate the Great Recession and speed the recovery from it.
•Deficit-financed spending to compensate for demand gaps in the private sector.
•Easy monetary policy to raise inflation and support demand.
•Mortgage modifications to reduce foreclosures and support consumption.

So we have liberals positing "Deficit-financed spending to compensate for demand gaps in the private sector, easy monetary policy to raise inflation and support demand, and mortgage modifications to reduce foreclosures and support consumption." as what to do about recession. Despite the "last five years" comment this has been their solution pretty much since FDR.

Conservatives support "...lower taxes, less regulation, government spending cuts, more domestic energy production, school choice, free trade, and low inflation. They often cite these policies as ones that might alleviate recession and speed recovery." So they apparently think this is what to do to about recession, and have been pretty consistent for a while.

So first, it does look like Conservatives have ideas about what to do about recessions, but it's a passive response, not the activist response liberals support.

Second, since both liberals and conservatives have advocated their particular solutions for recession, let's look at the last 30 or so years of recessions (per wiki).

July 1981 – November 1982: 14 months (Reagan)
July 1990 – March 1991: 8 months (Bush I)
March 2001 – November 2001: 8 months (Bush II)
March 2003 – May 2004: 14 months (Bush II)
December 2007 – June 2009: 18 months (Bush II and Obama)

So recessions last between 8 and 18 months pretty much regardless of whether liberals or conservatives are in office. So maybe both solutions work. Or one might ask if the government actually has anything to do with ending recessions.

Now if you could show that recessions didn't go away during conservative administrations, and did go away during liberal administrations, that might support the point of the cited article. However, that doesn't seem to be the case.

(Actually, the author of your article seems to think the "Great Recession" is still ongoing. Not a good advertisement for liberal policy, if so.)

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

M52NICKERSON

Friday, December 20, 2013 8:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Conservatives support "...lower taxes, less regulation, government spending cuts, more domestic energy production, school choice, free trade, and low inflation. They often cite these policies as ones that might alleviate recession and speed recovery." So they apparently think this is what to do to about recession, and have been pretty consistent for a while.

Those are not conservative ideas for daeling with a recession those are just the conservative ideals they push all the time. These are the conservative ideas to everything.

I do not fear God, I fear the ignorance of man.

STORYMARK

Friday, December 20, 2013 9:06 PM

Its like he deliberately missed the whole point.

A perfect "case in point" for the definition mentioned above...

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

SIGNYM

Friday, December 20, 2013 9:35 PM

Quote:
So first, it does look like Conservatives have ideas about what to do about recessions, but it's a passive response

In other words, Geezer is agreeing with you, because a "passive response" is "do what you've been doing all along- i.e., don't respond" [/snicker]

GEEZER, this past recession wasn't just "a recession", it was the WORST recession since the Great Depression. Libertarians today had no more notion of what to do with it than fiscal conservatives of 1929 knew what to do with the Great Depression. The whole point of studying the Great Depression was because it was different from recessions of the past, it didn't fit into anyone's theories (even Marx') where bust is followed by boom, but showed every evidence going on forever at a new equilibrium of deeply suppressed economic activity. Libertarian theory STILL hasn't taken it into account, and you personally look like you refuse to take it into account as well. Since you are a student of history, it seems to me that you should look into this economic phenomenon more deeply, and develop something more than a "passive (ie non-)response".

GEEZER

Friday, December 20, 2013 11:22 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by M52NICKERSON:
Those are not conservative ideas for daeling with a recession those are just the conservative ideals they push all the time. These are the conservative ideas to everything.

But as noted above, recessions ended when conservatives were in power, in about the same length of time as when liberals were. Something ended these recessions. If not the conservative administrations, then tell me what?

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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