Friday, December 16, 2011

Yup. Gummint Spending Kills Economies

It's the SPENDING, STUPID!!

.....it was intriguing to see a new European Central Bank study (hat tip to Veronique de Rugy of National Review and Ace of Spades) that used data from 108 national economies to demonstrate that “government consumption is consistently detrimental to growth.”  This is true “irrespective of the country sample considered.”  De Rugy ties this to domestic studies that have found “federal spending in states caused local businesses to cut back rather than grow,” which flies in the face of the almost unquestioned conventional wisdom that such spending promotes business growth by creating opportunities and providing infrastructure...

That's from the ECB, not Cato.

Even if you buy the assertion (below) that Fed employees are 'lifesavers,' that's only in the short term.  Long run, they kill the economy. 

2 comments:

J. Strupp said...

Why should it be surprising if this comes from the ECB? Seems consistant, given their actions (or inactions) over the past few years.

Jim said...

“federal spending in states caused local businesses to cut back rather than grow,”

And you see no reason to question this "finding"?