Mark Twain noted that history doesn't repeat itself, but that it "sometimes rhymes." Today's economic and political turmoil indicates Twain was onto something, so let's wind the clock back a couple of generations and see if we can discover a couplet or two.
President Richard Nixon took office with the nation in the midst of an unpopular war, begun in the administration of his predecessor Lyndon B. Johnson,who simultaneously expanded welfare programs without finding sufficient funds to pay for both "guns and butter," to use a phrase of the time.
Back then, policymakers were enthralled with the economics of John Maynard Keynes. President Nixon in 1971 even declared, "We are all Keynesians now." So the Treasury and didn't think twice about borrowing money and running the printing presses to monetize the growing debt. The result: Inflation, with a heavy dose of economic stagnation.
How about a president, George W. Bush, who, like Johnson, decided to fight a war and expand the welfare state through the Medicare drug benefit without finding a way to fully pay for either, other than through borrowing?
And how about the rise of an Asian power, this time China, that's challenging American economic dominance? Predictably, many on the left are claiming the only way the United States can compete with the Chinese is by shifting to a more government-centric economic model that picks winners such as windmills and electric-car producers and high-speed rail operators, even if the choices make no economic sense.
There also was the repudiation of the GOP in 2008, after eight years in power, because of its economic incompetence and a fair degree of corruption. And there was the election of Democrat Barack Obama who, like Carter, promised hope and change. Obama has been a disappointment, even for many Democrats, and with each passing day, his administration looks like it might match Carter's for incompetence.
For more: Politics repeating itself? - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
