General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Years of Tragic Waste" by Paul Krugman at the NY Times
Years of Tragic Wasteby Paul Krugman at the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/opinion/krugman-years-of-tragic-waste.html
"SNIP..................................
Behind that financial waste lies an even more tragic waste of human potential. Before the financial crisis, 63 percent of adult Americans were employed; that number quickly plunged to less than 59 percent, and there it remains.
How did that happen? It wasnt a mass outbreak of laziness, and right-wing claims that jobless Americans arent trying hard enough to find work because theyre living high on food stamps and unemployment benefits should be treated with the contempt they deserve. A bit of the decline in employment can be attributed to an aging population, but the rest reflects, as I said, an immense failure of economic policy.
Set aside the politics for a moment, and ask what the past five years would have looked like if the U.S. government had actually been able and willing to do what textbook macroeconomics says it should have done namely, make a big enough push for job creation to offset the effects of the financial crunch and the housing bust, postponing fiscal austerity and tax increases until the private sector was ready to take up the slack. Ive done a back-of-the-envelope calculation of what such a program would have entailed: It would have been about three times as big as the stimulus we actually got, and would have been much more focused on spending rather than tax cuts.
Would such a policy have worked? All the evidence of the past five years says yes. The Obama stimulus, inadequate as it was, stopped the economys plunge in 2009. Europes experiment in anti-stimulus the harsh spending cuts imposed on debtor nations didnt produce the promised surge in private-sector confidence. Instead, it produced severe economic contraction, just as textbook economics predicted. Government spending on job creation would, indeed, have created jobs.
.................................SNIP"
markpkessinger
(8,401 posts)Obviously, the Obama people are less wrong than the Republicans. But, by any objective standard, U.S. economic policy since Lehman has been an astonishing, horrifying failure.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)the objective should have been more than to just avoid a complete meltdown
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)The nation, the government, completely stopped investing, except in war and the military. It's a bunch of bullshit.
cui bono
(19,926 posts)Just how TPTB want it to be.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Bullsh!t.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)The GOP doesn't care whether the middle or lower classes do well, regardless of the effect that has on the nation. Their only concern is to shovel money to the rich so some of it can come back as campaign contributions, which brings up an interesting point: we should be dealing with the corporations - writing letters to them, lobbying them for laws and such - rather than Republicans. Sadly this applies to Democrats as well.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)&u&g&m&a&n
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Don't tell me you're a Democrat.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)tclambert
(11,087 posts)President Obama got one shot at a stimulus program. During his first year, he could get something passed. After that, nothing much. He decided to go low rather than fight for double that stimulus, which is what we needed. I agree with Krugman--huge opportunity wasted.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)What he suggests and what Obama tried won't be allowed by tea baggers and their allies.
Jasana
(490 posts)but all Washington is currently talking about is Syria. It's outrageous!
We need to spend some quality time fixing ourselves.
KitSileya
(4,035 posts)The US would now have much better infrastructure that would enable it to have further economic growth.... instead, they choked, and gave the money to people who didn't use it, and roads and railways and renewable energy projects are in ruins.
pscot
(21,024 posts)and Obama owns it.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Saw this coming 10,000 miles away, but then again I'm just a hater, or I'm ignorant about government, or I'm moronic and pissed because I didn't get my pony, etc.....
-p