Liberals' "Best Brains" and Their Fatal Conceit

Barack Einstein fails to impress. Liberal AP factchecks the Obama administration's claims:

Robert L. Nelson, a partner at the Akin Gump law firm who co-chairs its renewable energy group, said that the manufacturing claim reminded him of a story told in the old Soviet Union. A commissar, or government official, asks a farmer how good next year's crop will be. The farmer says it will be 10 times as good as last year's. The commissar thinks to himself, "Ten times zero is zero."

Housing and car bailouts failing. Liberalism is failing. Heritage Morning Bell:

The problem with both of these liberal programs is the same: there is no such thing as a free lunch. In both cases the additional government spending did not create any new demand; it only shifted the time at which American consumers were going to make a purchase they had decided to make anyway. Instead of ensuring an environment where market participants could ascertain the true prices of the goods they want to purchase, these government interventions added uncertainty into the economy by making it harder for existing businesses and entrepreneurs to plan their next move. These government interventions, paid for with borrowed dollars, did not create new wealth. They just diverted capital and resources from the other places where markets would have invested it spontaneously absent government action.

This is the same problem with President Obama's failed stimulus. Government spending does not stimulate economic growth. All it does is move resources away from one sector of the economy to another. And government has a horrible track record at efficiently allocating resources. All that really happens is that, on net, jobs get destroyed in the transfer process. But the left refuses to recognize this reality.

In February 2009, at a House Democratic retreat in Williamsburg, Va., President Obama pressed for passage of his stimulus plan, reasoning: "This is not something that we're just doing to grow government. We're doing this because this is what the best minds tell us needs to be done." But what if the people who President Obama believes have "the best minds" are just wrong? Forty-five years earlier, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan told the American people: "Anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we're always "against" things—we're never "for" anything. Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

Cato on the subject, via Mememorandum: Government’s Unwelcome Economic Distortions, plus can we talk about Biden's Fatal Conceit?

And does the CBO have a shred of credibility or utility left?!!! CBO: The Cover-Up Budget Office - Diana Furchtgott-Roth, RealClearMarkets

In Obama's vacation haven, (you can't come home again, Barack) liberal Martha's Vineyard, desperate fishermen protest for the restoration of their livelihood.

Apparently some brilliant administration brains are putting them out of business.

More. No surprise here. The Left's War on Small Business

It's bad enough that President Obama, and even the U.S. Small Business Administration, low-ball the number of new jobs created by small businesses. Both put it at around two-thirds, when the real number, we believe, is around 85%.

Our work — and we maintain a huge database on all public companies — shows that big businesses created no net new jobs over the last 25 years. Zero. Zip. When big businesses buy other companies, thereby padding their payrolls, they don't create new jobs. In fact, they usually consolidate and lay off people in duplicative positions. Many also downsize over time.

It is smaller businesses, and especially new entrepreneurial businesses, that drive each new business cycle.

Yes. A lot of this bunch are in the Bill Ayers school of economics.

P.S. We're paying for this lunch:) Ladies and Gentleman - The President of the United States...