There’s been a bit of a tiff between Jim Cramer, a talking-head and self-described Democrat who “favor[s] almost all of Obama’s agenda” and the White House. What I find most interesting in all this is a seeming dissonance in Cramer’s position.
Summary
Cramer’s position seems to be fairly summarized as:
I said to myself, “What the heck? Are they really that blind to the Great Wealth Destruction they are causing with their decisions to demonize the bankers, raise taxes for the wealthy, advocate draconian cap-and-trade policies and upend the health care system?
…
I do favor almost all of Obama’s agenda, right down to having the rich pay more of their freight in this great country. It’s just not the right time. … [A]ll the initiatives he wants to rush, like tax hikes, changes in health care, tinkering with the mortgage deduction — good grief, right now in the midst of the worst housing downturn ever — and the tough cap-and-trade rules, will derail any chance we have of turning this economy around.
I Don’t Get It
I can understand the view that the policies Cramer outlines, and which he attributes to the White House, are enormously destructive of wealth, and ought not to be pursued. I can understand the idea that they’re beneficial (on net), and ought to be. I can even understand (but don’t buy) the idea that these policies will create wealth.
I don’t understand the argument that these policies, which destroy wealth, ought to be pursued, just not right now. If they destroy wealth, they destroy wealth, and I don’t see why the government should be destroying wealth when times are good, anymore than it should when times are bad. It seems that government ought to be doing something else.
If these policies can turn a recession into a “Second Great Depression”, as Cramer argues, certainly they can turn a healthy economy into a stagnant one. That seems like a bad idea, too. (If the advocates of these policies think that cost is justified by the policies’ benefits, they ought to be more upfront about that cost, and argue that it’s justified.)
Is it ever the right time for bad ideas?
