Santana and History

Santana's famous warning is trotted out each time the world seems bent on returning to some favorite folly: Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Well, it seems we are there again. The Great Depression occurred because of a monetary bubble created in the 1920s followed by a crash created by Fed tightening. The economy struggled to recover becausee of uncertainty and fear the economy it with the Smoot Hawley Tariff in June 1930. Yesterday, Congress almost enacted a similar measure with a bill imposing tariffs on Chinese goods because China manipulates its currency. Also, yesterday a bill was nearly enacted which would have imposed additional burdens on U.S. business who do business abroad -- trying to force the companies to not outsource.

This is simply inane --economically foolish and dangerous. Why don't the legislators understand history? Well perhaps they do and what they see is that any attempt to penalize big business and the wealthy is a boon to their support.

It is not the companies and executives of large companies that are driving jobs overseas, it is the tax and spend and regulation programs of Congress. The US corporate tax rate is the highest (except perhaps Japan) of all developed countries. Regulations continue to grow and get more onerous. Unless taxes are cut and regulations eliminated, the U.S. will not see solid growth for a generation if ever.