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Friday, July 09, 2010

It's about time someone told the truth about this
Posted by Jill | 5:11 AM
The mantra among the lazyasses in the media is that if we just cut business taxes more, if we just deregulate more, they'll start hiring, that it's all that business simply can't make a profit with that Socialist Fascist Nazi Black Panther Muslim terrorist in the White House. Except that it just isn't true, and only Paul Krugman has the guts to say so:
But no. All the buzz lately is that the Obama administration is “antibusiness.” And there are widespread claims that fears about taxes, regulation and budget deficits are holding down business spending and blocking economic recovery.

How much truth is there to these claims? None. Business spending is indeed low, but no lower than one would have expected given widespread overcapacity and weak consumer spending. Business leaders are feeling unloved, but giving them a group hug won’t cure what ails the economy.

Ask the Obama-is-scaring-business crowd for some actual evidence supporting their claim, and they’ll tell you that business spending on plant and equipment is at its lowest level, as a share of G.D.P., in 40 years. What they don’t mention is the fact that business investment always falls sharply when the economy is depressed. After all, why should businesses expand their production capacity when they’re not selling enough to use the capacity they already have? And in case you haven’t noticed, we still have a deeply depressed economy.

Historically, there has been a close relationship between the level of business investment and the “output gap,” the difference between the economy’s actual output and its long-run trend — which means that there’s nothing surprising about low investment now, given the fact that the output gap is hugely negative. If anything, it’s surprising how well business investment has been holding up.

Alternatively, we can look directly at measures of unused business capacity. Capacity utilization in industry is up over the past year, but still far below historical norms. Vacancy rates at industrial and retail properties are at historic highs. Again, given that businesses have plenty of idle structures and machines, why should they be building or buying even more?

So where’s the evidence that an antibusiness climate is depressing spending? The answer, supposedly, is that this is what you hear when you talk to entrepreneurs. But don’t believe it. Yes, when you talk to business people they complain about taxes, regulations and the deficit; they always do. But the Obama’s-socialist-policies-are-wrecking-the-economy chorus isn’t coming from businesses; it’s coming from business lobbyists, which isn’t at all the same thing. Read the report on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the latest Washington Monthly: peddling scare stories about what Democrats are up to is a large part of what organizations like the chamber do for a living.

[snip]

So why are we hearing so much about the alleged harm being inflicted by an antibusiness climate? For the most part it’s the same old, same old: lobbyists trying to bully Washington into cutting taxes and dismantling regulations, while extracting bigger fees from their clients along the way.


Beyond that, business leaders are, as I said, feeling unloved: the financial crisis, health insurance scandals, and the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico have taken a toll on their reputation. Somehow, however, rather than blaming their peers for bad behavior, C.E.O.’s blame Mr. Obama for “demonizing” business — by which they apparently mean speaking frankly about the culpability of the guilty parties.

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2 Comments:
Blogger Unknown said...
Paul Krugman also sincerely believes the only thing wrong with the economy is that we haven't flushed enough borrowed Chinese money down the toilet yet.
7/9/10, 6:54 AM  
Anonymous mandt said...
We've just had to take employee cuts, eliminate benefits and raise the price of Koolaid at our summer stand by 30%. Oh, and blame Obama and if he's not available, then Clinton will do (either of them.)!
7/10/10, 3:58 PM  
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