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13

March 2009

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Geithner Takes Moral Hazard International

Written by , Posted in Economics & the Economy, Foreign Affairs & Policy

Not content with spending the US economy into oblivion, Secretary Geithner is imploring the rest of the world to also destroy themselves in the name of “stimulus.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner yesterday unveiled a sweeping plan that calls on the United States and other nations to offer billions more to bail out economies in crisis and prods a reluctant Europe to prop up the reeling world economy with more aggressive government spending.

But the campaign is triggering controversy on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, some officials doubt the wisdom of falling deeply into debt to create jobs and halt the plunge in consumer demand, as the United States is doing. On Capitol Hill, members of Congress have grown wary of approving still more money.

Geithner said the administration will ask Congress to make $100 billion more available — nearly doubling the current U.S. commitment — to the International Monetary Fund to aid struggling nations. U.S. lawmakers said yesterday that they are already bracing for the administration to request hundreds of billions of dollars in more rescue funds for U.S. financial firms, and possibly a second massive economic stimulus package as well.

The IMF is pushing for more aid to Africa.  The problem is, aid to Africa has never worked.  But Geithener wasn’t done.

Geithner said he plans to press his counterparts from major economies to boost their fiscal stimulus and to sustain that spending for as long as the downturn lasts. “Forceful” actions by the world’s leading economies are needed because “the global recession is deepening,” Geithner said.

What was it Albert Einstein said about insanity? Oh, right:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

If “the global recession is deepening” despite all the “forceful” big government plans so far put into action, it may be time to start committing those who call for ever more.

Einstein also had another saying relevant to our current mess:

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

Tell that to the big government interventionists.