David Stockman Is Outraged — And A Lot Of Powerful People Won't Like What's In His New Book

[Ichingcarpenter]

This is a history book. It’s a detailed account of the key events since the Depression that have shaped modern finance. I love history, and I’m familiar with those events. Stockman’s spin on financial history makes for a very good read. There’s something for everyone. For example, were you troubled by the bailout of AIG, and TARP? If so, you’ll love this chapter:

Paulson’s Folly – The needless Rescue of AIG and Wall Street

Do you worry that Bernanke has overplayed his hand with monetary policy? Stockman rips him apart:

The Bernanke Bubble: Last Gift to the 1 Percent
or

How the Fed Brought the Gambling Mania to America’s Neighborhoods
Do TV talking heads influence Fed policy? Stockman says “yes”.
The Rant That Shook the Eccles Building: How the Fed Got Cramer’d
Worried about US indebtedness to foreign central banks? That’s covered in:


Monetary Roach Motels
Stockman puts meat on the bones to some old stories. A few examples:


Read more: http://brucekrasting.com/david-stockman-is-mad/#ixzz2P6EEh4sx

[graham4anything]

1. David Stockman was Ronald Reagan's OMB Supply side bullsheet that ruined USA

Stockman is part of Reagan/Bush's team and always will be.

wiki-
David Alan Stockman (born November 10, 1946) is a former U.S. politician and businessman, serving as a Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Michigan (1977–1981) and as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1981–1985).

Stockman became one of the most controversial OMB directors ever during a tenure that lasted until his resignation during August 1985. Committed to the doctrine of supply-side economics, he assisted the approval of the "Reagan Budget" (the Gramm-Latta Budget), which Stockman hoped to be a serious curtailment of the "welfare state", gaining a reputation as a tough negotiator with House Speaker Tip O'Neill's Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and Majority Leader Howard Baker's Republican-controlled Senate. During this period, although only in his early 30s, Stockman became well known to the public during the contentious political wrangling concerning the role of the federal government in American society.

Stockman's influence within the Reagan Administration decreased after the Atlantic Monthly magazine published the famous 18,246 word article, "The Education of David Stockman",[6] in its December 1981 issue, based on lengthy interviews Stockman gave to reporter William Greider. The White House's public relations team thereafter attempted to limit the article's damage to Reagan's perceived fiscal-leadership skills. Stockman was quoted as referring to Reagan's tax act as: "I mean, Kemp-Roth [Reagan's 1981 tax cut] was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate.... It's kind of hard to sell 'trickle down.' So the supply-side formula was the only way to get a tax policy that was really 'trickle down.' Supply-side is 'trickle-down' theory."[7] Of the budget process during his first year on the job, Mr. Stockman is quoted as saying: "None of us really understands what's going on with all these numbers," which was used as the subtitle of the article.

After Stockman's first year at OMB and after "being taken to the woodshed by the president" due to his candor with Atlantic Monthly's William Greider, Stockman became inspired with the projected trend of increasingly large federal deficits and the rapidly expanding national debt. On 1 August 1985, he resigned OMB and later wrote a memoir of his experience in the Reagan Administration titled The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed (ISBN 0060155604), in which he specifically criticized the failure of congressional Republicans to endorse a reduction of government spending as necessary offsets to the large tax decreases, in order to avoid the creation of large deficits and an increasing national debt.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. So, in other words...

He's a little too left-leaning for us to pay attention to.

Got it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Not quite - if you read on, you find:

My only disappointment with The Great Deformation is that there is very little in the way of what could be done, versus what is being done. Stockman does offer up a few thoughts of what might be considered. These will get more than a few eyebrows raised on Wall Street and in D.C.:

- Abolish deposit insurance, strangle the Fed and shrink the banks.

- Adopt a Super Glass-Steagal. Abolish bailouts.

- Eliminate the Electoral College and establish strict term limits.

- A balanced budget, eliminate economic subsidies, shrink the federal government.

- Impose a 30% tax on wealth to reduce debt to 30% of GDP (assumes a $10T tax on the top 10% – think Cyprus on steroids)

- Eliminate income taxes and replace it with consumption taxes.

This is all blue sky stuff. It sounds alright, but it’s not feasible for the USA to consider any of these measures. Stockman acknowledges that his list will never see the light of day, “They would never be adopted in today’s regime of money politics, fast money speculators, and Keynesian economics”.

http://brucekrasting.com/david-stockman-is-mad/#ixzz2P6EEh4sx

Balanced budgets, a shrunken federal govt and the replacement of income taxes with consumption taxes aren't exactly left wing.

Paul Krugman's take is here (direct link: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/cranky-old-men/ ) . Then again, his opinion of Krugman is "New Deal revivalists Like Paul Krugman are essentially telling fibs and peddling historical legends is not offensive merely because it distorts the distant past. These legends actually compound the deformations of the present by rationalizing policies that cannot succeed and will only bury the nation deeper in debt."

[JHB]

6. "Telling fibs and peddling historical legends"? (Stockman describing Krugman)

Considering Stockman's past of being large-scale wrong on Reaganomics, especially when it counted (i.e., before it became entrenched in Washington groupthink), I think a legless millipede has more to stand on before throwing around that accusation.

[CTyankee]

7. Stockman has his nerve attacking Krugman for being an economist....

I note that he doesn't explain what exactly he is referring to when he talks about Krugman's "fibs" and "historical legends." He just tosses those words around. It's meaningless blather...

[JHB]

8. Considering the part where he sneers about Keyesian economics...

...and New Deal revivalists, I don't think it's too hard to figure out: he's one of the old(er)-school Republican conservatives, the kind who never got tired of grinding their axes against FDR and Keynes due to their self-image as fiscally responsible, and wound up being useful idiots for the combo of "starve the beast" ideologues and "deregulation & tax cuts uber alles" plutocrats.

Now that the ideological wing of the Republicans has gone full teabag, Stockman is hoping for a revival of his POV, despite the drastically different economic landscape now compared to 1980.

[CTyankee]

9. This is why I suspect the guy has a screw loose somewhere.

He seems to lurch around an awful lot. I think he is basically confused, as well.

OR, he just doesn't have all that much to do with his time...

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Stockman has been very interesting recently. In 81 he was the first of Reagan's crew to publically

criticize Regan tax policy. Here is a link to the Atlantic Monthly article that pissed Reagan off so badly in 81.

"None of us really understands what's going on with all these numbers."
—David Stockman
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/12/the-education-of-david-stockman/305760/

[just1voice]

5. Stockman is a lying repuke who crafted "trickle down economics" propaganda

for the Reagan liars and Stockman is still just trying to cash in on whatever he thinks will sell today. Stockman conspired against 99% of Americans while in power and expects people to just forget about it? It's a typical repuke tactic to feign concern of issues, such as Rand Paul pretending to care about drones, when they don't give a flying F when they actually get power.

Stockman is a fraud.