A Bad Idea, and Evil to Boot

Here is an excellent article that came out today:

The Lehman Brothers Plan

You should read it and think about it – it is not long at all.  Just to whet your appetite, here is a big:

People often ask me, "What do you think the government should do instead of QE inflation?" My stock answer is that the government should not try to fight the depression with government spending and cheap credit. Trying to stop the market from correcting the errors of the past only delays the consequences and makes them much worse.

Government should balance its budget. There should be no new credit expansion by the Federal Reserve. Most importantly, government should not meddle in markets to try to soften the consequences of the correction. Specifically, that means no bailouts, stimulus packages, or new public-works projects. Do not prop up wages. Allow competition to lower the prices of land, labor, and capital. The only positive steps for government to take are implementing tax cuts and spending cuts, eliminating regulations, and allowing free trade.

One attendant point that the author does not add is that because of the repeated, failed attempts of government to avoid recessions, our latter-day ones have become more severe.  But apart from that, this is a very serious social ethical matter.

One of the main reasons governments try to lessen the effects of recessions (and remember, this does not work – it only postpones and aggravates the problem) is because politicians have for many decades now claim to have done things like “create jobs” and “help the economy.”  Governments can do nothing direct that will help any economy.  They can be frugal, as the author of the article recommends.  But EVERYTHING else governments do supposedly to “help the economy” makes the economy worse.

And this is an ethical problem because ALL the mechanisms governments use to “help” economies are violations of the Biblical Eighth Commandment – inflation, government works programs, you name it and it is more than a bad idea, it is a moral evil.

Have you ever heard a sermon at your church about something related to that?