Investment, the New Definition
President-elect Barack Obama will lay out his plans to save us all from ourselves this morning from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, at 11 a.m. EST. It's amusing how he couches his plan in the terminology of "investing" when it simply amounts to massive spending, more bureaucracy and loads of the same failed programs that were created in New Deal and Great Society.

Normally, investing means you get not only what you put in but a little more in return. I've heard experts say that the kind of government spending Obama is proposing yields one dollar for every dollar spent. That's not exactly a good return. Would you put money in an account that promised you a 0% return?

Government spending does NOT increase productivity or create wealth. If the government has to borrow the money or tax the crap out of people to do this spending/investing, then it means we are merely building debt or redistributing wealth. For more, read "The Impact of Government Spending on Economic Growth" by Dr. Daniel Mitchell.

Obama is also hinting at potentially draconian regulations on financial markets that could further kill investment and lead us to a true depression. Has anyone else noticed how the markets still haven't really rallied after all of the money that's been poured into financial institutions? Investors are afraid because they know they'll soon be taxed to hell and back. Banks are sitting on their money because they know that the markets are going to take a hit. No loans for you.

Obama will have a pass on the deficit. The Dems and media have been crucifying Bush over the deficit being $200 or $400 billion. Now, it's totally acceptable for Obama to say that we'll have trillion dollar deficits for the foreseeable future. No prob for the great one.

All of the new spending and regulation will be swallowed up by the dumb masses because the media has set the ball on a tee for Obama. They've convinced everyone that we're in second great depression. Now folks are terrified and won't even go out and buy their kids new shoes. So, rather than just a housing/credit crisis, we now have a retail crisis.

Meanwhile, unemployment is still only around 7% -- not great but definitely not the 26% during the Great Depression. So, even though 93% of Americans still have jobs and many of them will even raises this year, the American people are cowering in the corner waiting on the government, our new president, to save them.

Pathetic.