Getting Buiter All the Time

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism quotes extensively from Willem Buiter's post today at the Financial Times online. I am glad to see that she approves of his general theme, which is critical of the all-Keynes-all-the-time attitude of the Fed and the Obamacans. Personally, I have his blog bookmarked. I recommend it highly; please note that he does not post daily.

On the same topic, I commented on this topic in a Jan. 3 post titled Stimulus Plan Deconstructed:

"I conclude that the stimulus program is a fraud. Money will be borrowed from savers in the U.S. and worldwide, and/or printed out of thin air, for projects that will largely occur when the cyclical downturn has become a cyclical upturn. Many projects will never be completed. Some years from now, it will be reported on how large a percentage of this program was wasted."


Previously, on Dec. 29, 2008, in my More Krugman post, I said things a little more politely (I am a physician, FYI):

"As physicians say, "Treat a cold, and it will last seven days. Leave it alone, and it will last a week." So with the economy. But in Obama-Krugman-land, building lots of roads with borrowed or printed money is the "doing something" that does more damage than an unnecessary course of antibiotics for a viral URI. But it sure is good for Big Gov and its hangers-on.


After a frenzied five or six years, the global economy simply needs a rest. The last thing it needs is an artificial "stimulus."


One point of disagreement with I have with Buiter's views is his certitude that the real cost of obtaining funding from the rest of world will rise for the U.S. Since the US still has lots of troops in Japan and the Gulf States are weak protectorates of the Colossus (who put the 'US' in 'colossus'?), and there are still troops in Western Europe 64 or so years after V-E Day, pari passu the US remains the only economic and military hyperpower- rationality may be trumped by realpolitik.

Yves also criticizes Prof. Krugman for two of his pieces in the New York Times, including today's.

I began this blog last month with two pieces on Krugman, one linked to the above, and the first, which panned his Dec. 29 op-ed Fifty Herbert Hoovers.

It is encouraging for this beginning blogger to see that Yves Smith, a pre-eminent and insightful blogger, has been writing about similar topics to me with apparently some similar points of view.