Comments on: Governor Mark Sanford Thinks Barack Obama's Stimulus Plan Could Make Us All as Rich as Zimbabwe

By: Bob L

Bob L — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:42:45 +0000

Mary Phillips-Sand@ "Hey, you know who else uses numbers? Socialists."

Exactly! Nazis also used numbers and statistics too. Remember Hitler wanted to help his country, *just* like Obama does!

My serious note is Stanford is full of it. Republicans love inflation because as Mary Phillips-Sand it makes debt worth less. The actions of their last three presidents make that clear.

By: Smith

Smith — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:39:59 +0000

Actually, the above assessment isn't completely accurate. Yes, physically printing money does provide the market with more paper money. But the whole notion of currency is that, somewhere, for every unit of that currency, there is something of real value – historically, gold – that you can buy with that unit. So, for every 1 dollar bill, there's 1 dollar worth of gold at Fort Knox (which actually isn't true anymore, they reduced the ration, but that's a different story).

Printing money would wildly upset the balance between printed units of currency and the physical, tangible goods that back those units. That's why it didn't work for Zimbabwe. They printed all this money, but there was so much of it, and it was so easy to come by, that the actual value of the unit plummeted.

Another way to look at it is this: why would anyone want a signed Babe Ruth rookie card? Cause their damn rare, that's why. But if there are a million of them, why should you pay all that money for the card? If you want to give me 1 dollar for a loaf of bread, but dollars are more common than loaves of bread, why shouldn't I demand 2 or 3 dollars?

That's why printing money won't work. But one last thing, I completely agree with "bearness" that it's better to have a bit of inflation later than mass unemployment now. If people are working, inflation will eventually come under control because supply will catch up with demand. In that respect, Mark Sanford (all the entire GOP, including Doush Limbaugh) can suck an egg.

By: bearness

bearness — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:06:29 +0000

Don't ask me. I gave up trying to figure out the Repubs sometime around '92.

By: Mary Phillips-Sandy

Mary Phillips-Sandy — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:20:19 +0000

@bearness: Hey, you know who else uses numbers? Socialists.

(But srsly if Mark Sanford is soooo worried about his state's debt why doesn't he WANT gazillion percent inflation, which would allow him to pay it all back with the future-equivalent of, like, $14?)

By: bearness

bearness — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:54:53 +0000

He’s both right and wrong. Last summer inflation hit 5.6% during the worst of the energy bubble. For most of the Bush Administration, inflation was between 1% and 6% Compare that to January 2009 where inflation was 0.03% because there is so much more supply than demand.

But he is right. Inflation is the price we will pay tomorrow for attempting to stimulate the economy today. But is higher inflation worse than 10% unemployment? 15% unemployment? 20% unemployment? Remember unemployment hit 26% during the Great Depression.

How high can inflation get before its worse for this country than 26% unemployment would be?

By: чемпионы

чемпионы — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:15:48 +0000

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That's the kind of change South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford thinks we can believe will result[...]…