Press conference fever

Too busy with chores tonight, but I had to comment on this one line from President Obama's presser:

Finally, the most critical part of our strategy is to ensure that we do not return to an economic cycle of bubble and bust in this country. We know that an economy built on reckless speculation, inflated home prices and maxed-out credit cards does not create lasting wealth. It creates the illusion of prosperity, and it's endangered us all.

Two things. First of all capitalism is, by nature, a cycle of boom and bust so I think Obama is shooting for permanent malaise. The theory of capitalism's sinusoidal behavior was observed by Soviet economist Nikolai Kondratieff who showed that free markets will always bounce back. This did not go over well with his Communist bosses:

Kondratiev was a Soviet economist, but his economic conclusions were disliked by the Soviet leadership and upon their release he was quickly dismissed from his post as director of the Institute for the Study of Business Activity in the Soviet Union in 1928. His conclusions were seen as a criticism of Stalin’s intentions for the Soviet economy; due to this fact he was sentenced to the Russian Gulag and later received the death penalty.

Must. Resist. Krugman. Joke.

Second thing: criticizing Americans maxing-out their credit cards is a ballsy thing to say considering Obama's budget will add over $9 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.