Darn You, Rich People

The New York Times has a story that highlights the unintended consequences of left wing policies to the average American:

The economic recovery has been helped in large part by the spending of the most affluent. Now, even the rich appear to be tightening their belts.

Late last year, the highest-income households started spending more confidently, while other consumers held back. But their confidence has since ebbed, according to retail sales reports and some economic analysis.

“One of the reasons that the recovery has lost momentum is that high-end consumers have become more jittery and more cautious,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.

That cautious attitude stems in part from concerns about global instability, especially in Europe, and in part from the volatility of the stock market in recent months. Major stock indexes fell sharply on Friday, after several big companies announced disappointing earnings. Bank stocks were the biggest losers as investors wrestled with the twin issues of lower trading profits from Citibank and Bank of America and the prospect that new financial regulation would further crimp their businesses.

So the affluent having money to spend actually has something to do with the recovery? I thought that if we only took money from the affulent to increase the number of members in Government Employees Unions that would fix everything. Either that or giving every run $13 extra per paycheck.

If the rich spending less is slowing down the economy. Wait til next year. The Bush Tax Cuts expire, so they’ll have less money to spend, and be doing more tax sheltering than actual activity that builds the economy. (As an aside, the Democrats have yet to extend the Bush Tax Cuts for the middle class as the President promised.)

The most pernicious demagoguery in politics is we can soak our rich neighbors and somehow the middle class will come out better for it. And we’re going to reap the reward of this class warfare folly in the form of a double dip recession.