Economic Effrontery

I watched President Obama's press conference today, the one year anniversary of TARP/The Recovery Act. TARP has created or saved some millions of jobs he said, and if you don't believe him, ask Will the windowmaker who had to start a second shift at his factory. Or ask Rob the roadbuilder who had to hire two new engineers. Or Sally the schoolteacher. You get the idea.

I don't know whether to be embarrassed for the president or insulted by him. Does the president really think these are persuasive arguments or does he just think we are stupid?

No mention was made about where the money came from to enrich Will, Rob and Sally. The money of course comes from borrowing and thus has to be paid off some day by Holly the hypothetical hygienist and Elsa the eventual electrician.

Now it may be that TARP was a huge success. But to make that claim, you need to acknowledge that the money borrowed from some to enrich others has been or will be worth the tradeoff. And supportive evidence would be nice. But instead the president just pretends that anything that has helped Will, Rob and Sally must be self evidently good.

I don't think President Obama is economically illiterate. I think he is just trying to pull one over on Americans.