Lisa Benson for January 13, 2012

Note, however, that the world’s most stable thriving economies — in Scandinavia and Germany — are also the most regulated, and have the strongest worker protections.

Reality just stubbornly insists on not conforming to “conservative” talking points.

Germany is indeed a very stable economy, Lynne B. From The Economist, December 2011: -————————————————————————————————————————“WILL Schuldenbremse enter the French or Italian languages the way “kindergarten” has become part of English? Perhaps. On December 5th the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, agreed that the 17 euro-zone countries should insert a German-style “debt brake” into their constitutions. That, say Europe’s first couple, will help prevent a recurrence of the crisis that threatens the euro’s survival. The European Court of Justice should verify that all the national Schuldenbremsen pass muster.Germany is not the first European country to have one. Switzerland introduced a debt brake in 2001. Poland caps its public debt at 60% of GDP, the limit it will have to observe if it joins the euro. But Germany’s constitutional Schuldenbremse of 2009 is likely to be the model for the 15 euro-zone countries that do not yet have one. Under its provisions, the federal government must cut its structural deficit (ie, adjusted for the business cycle) to 0.35% of GDP by 2016; the 16 Länder (states) must eliminate theirs entirely by 2020. The idea is to slash public debt from a decadent 83% of GDP (close to France’s rate) and never again to stray from the path of virtue. Spain adopted a slightly looser version in August; this week Austria passed a similar law (though not a constitutional amendment).

Whew, comments here are way different than on Calvin’s site.

Yes we need lower defense spending!

Cut taxes on the rich, Raise taxes on the poor.…brilliant

Not over regulation, but lack of demand has squeezed the economy. The oppressive government argument is a red herring.

Demand is returning slowly. As it improves, our job creators will find that regulation is not so oppressive.

The trick is to find the right balance. To protect what makes life worth living, while encouraging discovery. Those regulations that protected us from banking and investment misadventures, need to be reinstated. Sure their absence led to huge profits for a few, who are more than willing to use their gains to buy influence to keep the financial industry as unregulated as possible, but we need to overcome these roadblocks. As Peter Cook says after being asked if he’s learned from his mistakes, “I think I can probably repeat them almost perfectly.”Well we repeated the mistakes of the Great Depression and the S&L scandal, let’s learn from this one.

Simple fact: Reagan, Bush Sr and W GREW government. Clinton shrank it, and Obama has come up with more proposals to shrink it, like condensing “Commerce” numbers. It’s hilarious to watch Rush and the limbots get it exactly backasswards, year after year, ignoring their “own guys” actions, like the HUGE growth at Homeland Security.

Okay Trout. I can’t ignore this one. You’re saying Obama is trying to shrink it?! Do you not even read the numbers? Here is something of value. Between 2000 and 2008 (8 years), federal employment (not counting military) went up by about 53,000 employees. Between 2009 and 2010 (2 years), employment went up 84,000 employees. How is 84,000 less than 53,000? In what universe? Obamacare required hiring of IRS agents by the thousands to manage the new “fees” and 1099 requirements. And this toon isn’t just about the sheer size of government. It’s also about the oppressiveness off that government on business. Thousands of new regulations already have been enacted, or are going to be enacted here in the near future. When you look at the cost of compliance with federal regulations, it’s very telling: $40 billion a year. $40 billion, just to keep out of trouble with the federal government. And that number is going to go up.So looking at the 40 billion, plus the (likely) billions in penalties imposed under Obamacare, and then more from the frank-dodd bill, and whatever else the brain trusts in congress come up with in the next year or two… Are any of us surprised that businesses are shakey about hiring new people?

Those economies are connected to the strongest “welfare states” in Europe. I think you usually paint social housing, food protection and state-run healthcare as “rewarding non-workers”, do you not? Therefore, your argument is nonsense.

….Wow. Really? Do you REALLY think this, or are you just going with “I’ll just make up stuff what sounds good to me” here?Have you ever even traveled outside the US at all? Because you clearly have no idea what goes on in the world.

It’s interesting, you could replace that with ‘Personal Freedom’ and get the same thing. Same stroke different folks.

Lets get rid of Income Tax and encourage people to save by having a national sales tax except for tax on food, medicine, and clothes up to say $75. If you save you don’t pay tax, if you spend you pay tax. The rich pay more as they buy more expensive items. The poor have a safety net of the essentials tax free. – Of course too many special interest groups will stop this – Tax software companies, CPAs, the real estate industry, etc.

For the European-welfare states lovers: historically, the US used to be the benefactor of migration of intellectual talent from all over the World, as they sought economic freedom and opportunity, and etc. It is no accident that virtually all of the new basic technologies have been invented and commercialized in the USA..Over the last few years however, this trend has reversed, as the US has embarked upon ‘Europenization’, while many European countries, i.e: Sweden, Germany, France and so on, have been adopting more conservative economic policies – even lowering income tax rates on the corporations and the wealthy. Of course China and India have rediscovered capitalism also and are eating our collective lunch..Every civilized nation needs regulation, for without it it could not be civilized. That however does not mean that the more regulation the more civilized the country is. The traditionally Communist countries were the most regulated nations ever – and they were some of the most barbaric – ever..0bama’s ideology is a proven road to serfdom.

europe has regulations and have economic freedom. japan has regulations and have economic freedom. deregulation is not really the answer to everything. airlines have been deregulated, but service sucks, security sucks, prices are still high, and airlines are still filing for bankruptcy.banks have been deregulated, and look what they did.

I stand corrected. The current European problems are direct consequences of decades long conservative economic policies and practices dictated by the Austrian School of Economics . . . Thank you.

Fair is in the eye of the beholder – about as arbitrary as it gets. To the 47% that pay no Federal Income taxes at all, it is considered fair that the top 2% should pay 65% or 90% of the Federal Income taxes collected..Flat tax on the other hand is impartial, unemotional, and I dare say, fair. Why would one $ be taxed at different rate than another $?.Should people at or near poverty line be paying taxes on their income? Absolutely!!! And at the same rate as everybody else. They need to have a skin in the game. Exempting the low income people from the income tax burden only encourages them to stay below the threshold at which the tax obligation is triggered..Of course the leftists, the poverty pimps will argue otherwise . . . .and their war on poverty has been so successful, hasn’t it been?

If you agree with this strip, don’t vote GOP. Obama has been shrinking the government since he took office, and the largest increase in the size of the Federal government was under W, with a Republican congress. But you need to look past what the GOP says, and pay attention to what they do when they have power.

If America were a tiny nation with one social culture, one language and no enemies, I’d also suggest a socialized society.

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But for major countries that are an amalgam of cultures that actually mean something in the world, it doesn’t work. It never has and it never will.

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Comparing some tiny Nordic nation to America is the height of hubris…

On Aug. 9, 2004, when asked if he would still have gone to war knowing Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction, Kerry said: "Yes,

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In October 2003, Kerry said Israel’s unilateral construction of a security fence was “a barrier to peace.”But less than a year later, in February 2004, he reversed himself, calling the fence “a legitimate act of self-defense,”

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Kerry joined with 97 other senators and voted for the Patriot Act in October 2001. Campaigning in New Hampshire in June 2003, he defended his vote, saying, “it has to do with things that really were quite necessary in the wake of what happened on Sept. 11.”

But the following December in Iowa, Kerry advocated “replacing the Patriot Act with a new law that protects our people and our liberties at the same time.”

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In 1996, then- Massachusetts Gov. William Weld asked Kerry, a longtime opponent of capital punishment, whether the death penalty should be applied to terrorists. Kerry replied that the idea amounted to a “terrorist protection policy.”He said then that such a policy would discourage other nations from extraditing suspects because many U.S. allies preclude extradition to countries that impose the death penalty.Kerry now favors the death penalty for terrorists, though extradition remains a problem.Kerry still opposes the death penalty in general, but says if elected he would not interfere with state executions.

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In 2000, Kerry called the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve “not relevant” to solving the problem with high fuel prices.

But in following months, Kerry pressured President Bush to start pumping oil into the government’s emergency reserves. Kerry called for the release of some of the reserves, as well.

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In a speech at Yale University in 1992, Kerry called the program “inherently limited and divisive,” and said it had “kept America thinking in racial terms.” He added that it was failing those most in need of assistance: African-Americans.At the height of the Democratic primary race in January, Kerry reiterated his support for affirmative action. Kerry’s critics question how he can support a program that he once called “divisive.” Kerry says he was speaking about racial quotas, which he opposes.

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Kerry backed trade pacts with Chile, Singapore and Africa. In 2000, he voted to grant China most-favored-nation trading status.Having supported the major trade deals of the last decade – including the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – Kerry was heavily critical of U.S. trade policy during the Democratic primaries.

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Kerry voted for President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act” but now campaigns against it

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Shall I go on? There’s plenty more

The bailouts proved how greedy big business is and banks. People have to understand is their interest is in keeping the stock holders happy, not you and me. If they were truely concerend they would not give a CEO of bank a million dollar bonus for merging a bank. Also, why are banks being allowed to charge 30+percent interest on credit cards?? Anyway, the most economic stable countries have big governement. The USA has fallen to 24th as most economic stable countries and will keep falling as business send our jobs overseas so they can make more and more profits that YOU and I never enjoy. We need to pull production jobs BACK to the USA and start putting tariffs on imports that work.