Monday, August 29, 2011

The Hurricane Irene stimulus?

Will they never learn that the destruction of property makes everyone poorer?  It seems that even some "economists" including University of Maryland professor Peter Morici haven't:
... after the damage is tallied up, repair efforts could give the country an economic boon.
After infrastructure is destroyed in natural disasters, Morici told MSNBC, "we generally rebuild better than before." Morici said that spending on new roads, bridges, and other infrastructure could total as much as $20 billion. "We'll not only rebuild, but we'll get a multiplier effect, and we'll get more capital," the Maryland professor said.
Maybe Morici would think differently if a tornado leveled his home and someone told him that fairy tale:



And here's Milton Friedman:
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 29, 2011 at 1:26:00 PM PDT

    According to that sort of logic, the U.S. should start bulldozing every city in America. I always knew that economists were idiots.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JRAugust 29, 2011 at 3:40:00 PM PDT

    Yup, "Economist" as a profession is becoming as prestigious as "politician" and "snake-oil salesman".

    ReplyDelete