Larry Beinhart, AlterNet, January 19, 2008
The New York Times made it official. The Economy is a problem!
So, now, at last we can discuss it.
Not just discuss it, in rapid order “recession” became the word of the day, from White House, Congress, the Fed and the media.
It’s blamed, mostly, on the subprime crisis.
But that’s not the problem. It’s a symptom. It is the logical, and probably one of the necessary results, of Bushenomics.
Along with low, or no, job growth. Little or no business growth. Depressed wages. And the crashing dollar. (The president has a different vision of the economy. In his vision it’s booming! And the number of jobs is growing! Though there is this little blip.)
The idea under which Bushenomics was sold is this:
* The rich are the investor class.
* If the rich have more money, they will invest more.
* Their investments will create more business.
* Those businesses will create more wealth, thus improving everyone’s lives and making the nation stronger. They will also create new and better jobs.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The idea under which Bushenomics was sold is this:
* The rich are the investor class.
* If the rich have more money, they will invest more.
* Their investments will create more business.
* Those businesses will create more wealth, thus improving everyone’s lives and making the nation stronger. They will also create new and better jobs.
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If the buisness model states the above and they’ve done everything to support the model,
then how come the Economy has gone to hell in a leadpainted chinese basket?
Because Bush-enomics is merely Reagan-omics in disguise,i/e Bullshit encouraging investment from the middle class to line their silk pockets a.k.a shearing the sheep.
My highschool economics teacher taught us this on the downlow,
and when I brought it up in college the professor shouted me down as if I were reading aloud the mallefus.
Comment by Rainlander — January 20, 2008 @ 12:11 am
Even the aptly-named Arthur Laffer, who sketched out the Laffer Curve on a bar napkin and was a strong Supply Side/Trickle Down theory economist, finally admitted none of this crap works in practice.
Reagan’s economy was so successful that Bush 41 had to raise taxes to pay off his deficit; Junior’s continuation-with-a-vengeance of Reagan’s economic monstrosity — the idea that “deficits don’t matter” and you can just borrow your way out of trouble while cutting taxes and building up the military — has led us down the path to third-world nation status.
Seems that China and the EU will be the economic superpowers of the next twenty years, and maybe during that time we’ll elect some people with the sense of an eight-year-old to handle the economy and we can bail ourselves out.
But I wouldn’t bet on it, even in Declining Dollars.
Comment by RS Janes — January 20, 2008 @ 6:55 am