SC6 Remembers Paul Samuelson ...

Obama Could Learn a Lot From This Guy ......

When it comes to Economics - one of the few things we talk about that we actually studied - we have some very firm beliefs. One of them is that Government cannot get an economy out of a slump mainly because a government, no matter how large it seems, it tiny compared to the economy that it oversees. You cannot spend your way out of a downturn. The real power of government over an economy is in regulation and in setting policy. The government sets the table, and the private sector feasts or famines based upon it.

This is why we are taking a moment to pay tribute to MIT Economist, Nobel Prize winner and Kennedy economic guru Paul Samuelson - one of the few Democrat economists who got it. In theory, Samuelson was a Keynesian economist, which states that the government should stir the economic pot. By the way, this was all we were taught in college - like the Bible on Sunday. However, Samuelson pioneered and differed from standard Keynesian in two ways: first, he believed that tax cuts were good for an economy, if done correctly and responsibly. He wrote the Kennedy tax cuts in the early 60's that have been credited for the good economy of that decade. Even if it contributes to a small deficit (note, we said SMALL), it was for the better.....

Secondly, and this is our favorite, is that he was a leader in using hard-nosed statistical data to form policy. Economics is a bland, cold science, and human emotion or lobbying has absolutely no place in the field.... It's a game of numbers: if the data says this, you adjust this policy, or another based on other data. Barack Obama wouldn't understand this at all, but that's how it works. Economics has NO HEART... It's almost hilarious that Economic degrees are Bachelors of Arts degrees, because the true beauty of it is in the science. Samuelson got this from what we can see. Both Kennedy and Bill Clinton seemed to grasp this to a degree when shaping their policy, Obama doesn't appear to have gotten it yet - but he will.

With the word of yet another Stimulus Plan possibly coming down the pipe, we'd humbly ask DC to take Samuelson's work into account, and work from the other end of the spectrum to help the economy. There are no easy fixes - it all takes time.

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