Hillary Clinton Knows How Economies Grow?

"All mankind would suffer if woman should fail to develop her ego and be unable to unite with man as equal, freeborn companions and comrades." - Ludwig Von Mises (1922)

The secret is between our legs, claims Mrs. Clinton. Recently, a top news organization was kind enough to give her a perch from which to sing us her surefire plan to Get The Economy Growing Again, via "identity economics", if you will. "One of the biggest growth markets in the world may surprise you", she starts off, and unsurprisingly (for those of us who have been listening to her for the last few decades) it's women.

It's hardly her fault I wasn't bowled over; at this stage in America's slow self-immolation I'm not surprised by much of anything. In modern America, the less you know about something the more your opinion about it is respected, war is peace and utter failures are crowned with glory. So the fact that Hillary Clinton, a life-long political junkie who thinks "profit" a curse word, is out trumpeting an economic cure for what ails us is par for the course.

Economic depressions have always been high time for the cranks, charlatans and opportunists to take center stage, so here we have a Secretary of State promising economic recovery via taxpayer subsidies to the fair sex; and not just domestically. "This is the central focus of my diplomatic outreach...to talk about economic policies that will help their countries grow", and she's so taken with the idea of "diversity" as a cure I picture hen-pecked world leaders nodding their heads politely, trying not to look at the clock on the wall, as Mrs. Clinton nags them about their country's lack of women CEOs.

In a column of less than 900 words she chants her mantra "invest in women" three times, reminding me that the U.S. government hasn't spent any money in decades; it merely "invests". She is impervious to the fact that government "invests" taxpayer money in the same manner that my wife "saves" money by emptying out our checking account when shopping. "It was on sale", my wife explains. "It's all about "gender equity", Mrs. Clinton chimes in, and adds that we need to think about "how much more needs to be done to support women and girls worldwide". Sadly, America's checking account, like mine, is empty.

No worries! Damn the bank statements, it's full speed ahead, and more laws, taxes, and regulations, all determined and implemented based solely on what hangs (or not) in between your legs, is Mrs. Clinton's road to paradise. This is economic justice, circa 2011. And since she notes that Goldman Sachs has climbed on board with its own "10,000 Women" initiative, you may rest assured that somewhere in these gender-based initiatives there's a Gravy Train pulling into town, heavily laden with Other Peoples' Money, ripe for the picking.

To buttress her claim, she quotes a World Bank president that, "gender equality is smart economics", which is polite cocktail party banter masquerading as rational thinking. It is equality of all before the law that is smart economics, conducive to growth and, most important, to liberty. Dividing everyone up into interest groups, in this case based on whether or not you can safely urinate while standing, may be smart politics but it is not smart economics.

And that is the fatal flaw in Mrs. Clinton's worldview, looking at "women" as a singular blob, amorphous and (as ever with political schemes) in need of government "help". While she believes her plan would make the world "more peaceful and prosperous" it would have the exact opposite effect. Our Founders warned against faction for the fact they tear apart the social fabric, and here she is actively promoting them, even into cultures with a vastly different outlook on the matter than ours.

She is correct, though, in her basic assumption, as when she praises Bolivia for recognizing that "women and men have equal rights to own property". The protection of property rights for all - regardless of gender or any other arbitrary distinction - is the extent of just government, to recognize and enforce that principle the mark of humble wisdom. That is all you need for economic justice and sustainable growth.

But Mrs. Clinton, a dyed in the wool "progressive", cannot fathom the prudent justice embodied in merely enforcing the rules and otherwise leaving people alone. Adam Smith's "We may often fulfill all the rules of justice by sitting still and doing nothing" is anathema to the modern American mind. Being an "activist", she instead trots out a grab bag of gender-based handouts, using Other People's Money, to grant "opportunity to access credit" and "close the gender gap in access to mobile technology".

Remembering that she is Secretary of State she hastens to staple her project onto world events. "Certainly we are seeing the impact of excluding women in the Middle East, where the lack of their access to education and business has...helped lead to social unrest", a stunning lack of awareness of those peoples' cultures, not to mention she leaves unmentioned the decades those poor people have suffered at the hands of thuggish regimes, many of them American backed, as reason for the revolts sweeping the region. The people of the Middle East are not up in arms because their wives, sisters, and daughters are yearning for iPads.

Be that as it may, Mrs. Clinton is convinced that gender equality (of results, closing any gaps) is the path to not only economic growth, but a stable Middle East as well. So going forward she promises, "At the State Department, we are supporting women worldwide as a critical element of U.S. foreign policy". I give a word of warning to the women of the world - take a look at Iraq and Afghanistan (laid low), at America's devastated housing market (also laid low), and the festering slums that comprise America's inner cities - each and every one lovingly "helped" by American politicians, then ask yourself; do you really want to grasp this offered hand?

Personally, I'm a big fan of Hillary Clinton the Economist. There isn't enough laughter in our world, plus when she's coming up with Big Ideas To Get The Economy Moving Again it cuts into her usual day job of threatening small foreign nations with invasion. So we all get a chuckle and world peace is promoted. She's a twofer, when she wants to be. But as for the wisdom of her suggestions on how to boost an economy she is, as we used to say in grad school, far outside her circle of competency.

We may as well ask a plumber about quantum physics.