Can’t find any economics in Christina Romer’s advice

Look as long and as look hard as you want but you won’t find any economics in Christina Romer’s advice as a Presidential economic adviser. The good news is she’s going back to academia. The bad news is she will once again be transforming ‘the best and the brightest’ into ‘the dangerous and the dullest’ by filling their skulls with utter nonsense. The other bad news is that the Obama administration will simply find another junkeconomics adviser to take her place.

Some excerpts from her final speech before departing the employ of the government to return to academia were posted the other day at the USA Today blogspot, The Oval. The title of the post, Christina Romer: Recession ‘terrifying and so difficult to cure’, taken from a quote in her speech is as good a place as any to start. Recessions can be financially painful for many but terrifying they are not. Godzilla stomping down Main Street with half eaten bodies hanging out of his mouth would be terrifying.

Having a PhD (piled higher and deeper) is not a license to practice medicine on the U.S. economy. In the first place a real economist knows you don’t “cure” recessions. A recession is part of a business cycle in a free market economy. The recession or contraction is a part of the corrective process that occurs when the expansion part of the business cycle runs out of steam. Perhaps Dr. Romer should pay a visit to a physician while she is still covered by her Federal employee cadillac health insurance plan. Thinking it is possible, or even desirable, to “cure” the contraction (recession) part of a business cycle must mean that she also believes it possible and desirable to “cure” the expansion part of a business cycle as well. Dr. Romer either suffers from severe TAPH (terminal academia progressive hubris) or flaming socialism. For such a severe case of TAPH the patient would need to be slapped silly for about 30 days. The treatment for flaming socialism is a daily application of Preparation H to the head until the brain swelling is under control and the patient stops babbling economic nonsense.

“Rather than being caused by deliberate monetary policy actions, it began with interest rates at low levels. It is a recession born of regulatory failures and unsound practices that contributed to a housing bubble and eventually a full-fledged financial crisis.”

Christina Romer: Recession ‘terrifying and so difficult to cure’

The severity of this particular business cycle contraction was fueled by misguided (are there any other kind?) progressive housing policies that originated during the Carter administration and were later put on steroids during the Clinton administration. Those policies were allowed to run unchecked by “go along to get along” Republicans for fear of being called racists by Barney Frank and his liberal posse.

“Because the final bill was a mixture of hundreds of measures, many of which don’t come with Recovery Act signs or easily identifiable links to the act, it is been hard for people to see what the act has done. But it is precisely because it works through existing programs and spreads funds widely that it could get out quickly and reap large benefits.”

Christina Romer: Recession ‘terrifying and so difficult to cure’

Apparently the good Dr. believes there are two factors involved here. First the unwashed masses are too stupid to understand. Second, the administration failed to spend enough money to put up signs so the unwashed masses would be able to identify porkulus at work. Contrary to Dr. Romer’s analysis the real problem is that porkulus has been nothing more than wasteful government spending on a hodgepodge of programs that were unnecessary in the first place. Spending more money on useless, wasteful programs is in fact just useless and wasteful spending and does not add to the wealth of the nation.

“I am proud of the recovery actions we have taken. I believe they have made the difference between a second Great Depression and a slow but genuine recovery.”

Christina Romer: Recession ‘terrifying and so difficult to cure’

The Obama administration policies turned what would have been a significant business cycle downturn into a really, really screwed up mess. Doubling down on such flawed policy could drive the economy into something approaching a depression.

“Given our long-run fiscal challenges, any additional support should be done in a responsible way. But concern about the deficit cannot be an excuse for leaving unemployed workers to suffer. We have tools that would bring unemployment down without worsening our long-run fiscal outlook, if we can only find the will and the wisdom to use them.”

Christina Romer: Recession ‘terrifying and so difficult to cure’

Fiscal tools in the hands of someone suffering from TAPH (terminal academia progressive hubris) or flaming socialism is like a child running down the hallway at school with a pair of sharp scissors in one hand and a screwdriver in the other.

Romer, who has not been replaced by the president, will return to teaching economics at the University of California-Berkeley.

Christina Romer: Recession ‘terrifying and so difficult to cure’

The Obama administration’s “advisory” team is like a septic tank – there is an unpleasant odor coming from it and the big chunks are rising to the top. As for replacing Dr. Romer on the team; are there any old dented trash cans available?

Note: Some may be familiar with the more colorful expression – as useful as a bent shit can. Frequently used throughout my Navy career to describe someone whose departure would result in a net gain in the effectiveness of an operating unit; “that sailor is about as useful as a bent shit can” (aka trash can).