Doom and Gloom From the Experts

Over at SayAnything, avid NBfPB reader Bat One, picks up on a report out of Royal Bank of Scotland - hardly crackpots - that minces no words: doom and gloom are warranted. You won't get much of an argument out of me, I've been saying that we are skirting a Depression by the skin of our teeth but that we could well be headed there due to egregious policy mistakes (here, here, here, here, here, here and here). Obama and the Pelosicrats have done almost everything wrong in the sphere of economic policy and they have succeeded in beating the animal spirits of the US economy into a coma. And we are powerless, to wit we stand only a small chance of a reprieve from the latest policy blunder only due to the death of a 92 year old man. Without such an intervention of fate, a last minute add-on $19 billion bank tax would be sailing onto Obama's desk to be signed into law, representing just one more blow to the economy that we can ill afford. This wounded beast of a Congress and administration is thrashing about wildly, still able to take hunks of prosperity out of our hides when it connects. Hang on tight.

UPDATE: It is worth remembering what Nobelist Robert Mundell said would happen when we raise taxes on dividends and capital gains...nose dive.

UPPDATE: Allen Meltzer sums up nicely what I have been saying on this blog for almost two years now, Obama and the Pelosicrats have gotten nearly everything exactly wrong on economic policy - the stimulus was never going to be anything more than an expensive waste, our leaders have absolutely chilled the entrepreneurial spirit with both legislation and rhetoric, and tax and fiscal policy is sucking resources out of the private economy. They've done, literally, nothing right. Romer, Summers, Bernstein, Goolsbee, Furman...the whole sorry lot have botched it to the point of malpractice. If it was the politics then they should have resigned in protest.

UPPPDATE: I almost forgot that Obama-supporter and voter, Mort Zuckerman has been mincing no words for ahile now about Obama's economic policy program. Niall Ferguson makes an appearance too. Recent reports have Dick Fischer talking about how "regime uncertainty" hurts job creation. There is a chance that these voices are just now coming to the surface and will be absorbed and acted upon by the White House and Congress. Just a chance mind you. My belief is that these voices, if they've even gotten through the highly cloistered walls of officialdom, have been saying this for some time and the White House has simply ignored them because 1) they simply don't jibe with their idealogical bent or 2) they actually don't think that the terrible jobs picture will hurt them in coming elections or in 2012.