Category: Uncategorized

by Smitty

The Puffington Host editors offer this collection of GOP Congressmen using the word ‘uncertainty’. Props to Todd Young, USNA ’95, appearing at 0:55:

The Puffington Host, normally such a bastion of wisdom and erudition, is unexpectedly daft here:

With the economy in a slump for nearly four years, corporate executives and conservative politicians have repeatedly invoked “uncertainty” as a major barrier to American job-creation. The “uncertainty” jab is a go-to talking point for any congressional Republican looking to tag President Barack Obama as a tax-raising, regulation-obsessed foe of American businesses.
But according to banking data compiled by economic research firm Moebs Services, the uncertainty plaguing the American economy has nothing to do with government regulations or taxes on millionaires. It’s an uncertainty driven squarely by consumers and small-businesses who are worried about their short-term financial prospects. And it’s been going on since well before Obama took up residence in the White House.

It must be the case that Founding Father James Madison, and The Federalist #62 slipped their memory at the Puffington Host (emphasis mine):

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.

Another word for ‘no man. . .can guess’ would be. . .uncertainty?
Still further on:

What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government? In a word, no great improvement or laudable enterprise can go forward which requires the auspices of a steady system of national policy.

Capitalists are reduced to the role of mice in a cage with the government python, wondering who gets devoured next.

Less metaphorically, there is the Stupor Committee. We all sort of know the story ends badly, on November 23rd, but no one can tell yet whose ox will be gored.

It sure is a good thing we have Moebs to guide us in this brave new world, since we’ve Progressed beyond the simple, common-sense analysis of Dead White Guys like Madison.