I see failed economist Art Laffer is still uttering pronouncements:
On Fox News this morning, Art Laffer blames the 2008 stock market crash on Barack Obama "rising in the polls and doing well in the polls," warning that the market will crash in 2020 "if they see an Obama coming"
Anchor Bill Hemmer: "We're watching the calendar with you" pic.twitter.com/JlBsvXbo7s
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 23, 2019
Steve Benen has a lot of fun with this, but I think he missed a bet.
I see this as a vaccination. No doubt Laffer has been watching the escalating Federal debt, a problem partially his fault as the Laffer Curve is an implicit part of Republican Party Holy Tenets these days, and he’s beginning to wonder if his whole edifice of dubious economics is about to come falling down around his ears.
If it does, President Trump, already a dubious bet to win re-election with the Mueller Report’s apparently damning (I haven’t had a chance to read it) information, which will be followed up by the various House oversight committees, will have his last redoubt, that of “It’s the economy, stupid!” fame, shattered, leaving him vulnerable to the shouts of the outraged villagers voters who used to believe in him.
I expect this will become a “talking point” for Republicans who are afraid of taking on the debate about the future in honest terms. At some point, the Democratic contender who frightens the extremist wing of the Republicans the most will have the label “OBAMA: Horseman of the Apocalypse!” hung around their neck, and that’s all we’ll hear.
Because an honest evaluation of what happened in the Great Recession doesn’t appear to concern Laffer and, presumably, Trump – and his allies will stampede along in their dust.
This may be a wakeup call for the Democrats to begin messaging – HONESTLY – on the real causes of the Great Recession. Bring up subprime loans and all those second- and third- rate financial instruments, the insanely high risks. And the legislation that enabled it, no matter who approved it.
Let the Republicans argue that the appearance of a Democratic candidate who talked sense, and, when elected, successfully guided the resuscitation of the country, caused a market crash. It’s utterly laughable and dishonest.
And such remarks, wielded properly by the supposed victims of the lies, can become great big clubs to use on those spreading the lies.
But this is Laffer trying to inoculate the people currently in favor of Trump against thinking any kind of economic difficulty could possibly be the GOP’s fault. Blame a ghost, that’s what they want to do.
The Democrats had better not let them.
