Rare Roman lantern found in field near Sudbury BBC (hat tip reader John M)
One Lump Or Two? James Howard Kunstler (hat tip reader Michael T)
The Effects of Fiscal Stimulus: Evidence from the 2009 ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Program Atif R. Mian and Amir Sufi (hat tip Planet Money). The title is annoying, since implying that one has reached general conclusions from a single case study has the potential to be misleading (particularly since cash for clunkers was widely pilloried, but it is still useful to have popular perceptions confirmed).
Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph (hat tip reader Steve S)
Impressions of Afghanistan Atlantic (hat tip reader Crocodile Chuck)
Employers Push Costs for Health on Workers New York Times
What Bernanke doesn’t understand about deflation Steve Keen. In case you missed it…
Banks are cutting use of bonuses to recruit Financial Times
Dick Fuld’s Fantastic Revisionism ! Barry Ritholtz (hat tip reader John M)
Highlights from Bernanke’s testimony to financial crisis panel Washington Post
Irish Worries For The Global Economy Peter Boone and Simon Johnson (hat tip Richard Smith)
China’s perplexing property boom Telegraph (hat tip reader Jim C)
The Myopic Worlds of Faith-Based Economics Darryl Hermanutz, Raging Debate
Antidote du jour:
56 comments
Comments are closed.
A partner for the antidote:-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1308487/Orangutan-cradles-lion-cubs-role-babysitter.html
Thanks. “And in that day the lamb shall lie down with the lion.[…and the orangatang shall suckle the lion].” Both antidotes are quite beautiful to contemplate.
…orangutan, sorry.
The long article in the Atlantic on the current situation in Afghanistan by William R. Polk is a fascinating read. The next take-away reminds me very strongly of the course of affairs in Vietnam; not the American repulse there but the end of French colonial occupation. The only thing missing is Dienbienphu—but even without that event, the French were completely thwarted with no other ending possible than a negotiated withdrawal.
There is no winning strategy for the occupation in Afghanistan. There is no ‘staying and running things’ strategy for the occupation in Afghanistan. There are several ways and timeframes to withdrawal but all roads lead to that outcome. And most of Polk’s informants were of essentially that view. The only ones not: senior policy makers, there and at the top of the occupiers’ governments and militaries. Guess who needs to be removed for us to transition through the inevitable to a different situation, then?
Re Polk’s Impressions of Afghanistan — years ago, in a used bookstore in Bucks County, I found a book-length copy of Robert Kennedy’s 1968 campaign platform. There must have been 20 or 30 pages devoted to Vietnam — its leadership, politics, economy, the war strategy, strengthening the ARVN, etc. etc.
Decades later, it was all so irrelevant. Vietnam doesn’t even feature in US domestic politics.
Afghanistan will be similarly irrelevant 20 years on, after the NATO clown posse has been expelled like the Soviets who preceded them. But for now, the MSM stenographers direct our collective attention to it. The political elites are obsessed with it, since they’ve gotten themselves into a nasty quagmire. We are expected to share the obsessions of the bipartisan war coalition, led by the unlikely peace laureate Barack O’Bomba, Drone Messiah and Scourge of the Pashtuns.
One can gauge the bad faith of the Atlantic by its publication of a saber-rattling article by Jeffrey Goldberg, claiming that the likelihood of a unilateral Israeli air strike on Iran is fifty-fifty. Goldberg painted the US as a helpless giant, watching and waiting passively to see what Israel would do. The Atlantic didn’t see fit to disclose, even in his biography, that Goldberg had served in the IDF.
And so with all due respect for Polk’s ‘old Asia hand’ reminiscences, I assert that all we need to know about Afghanistan is that the illegal NATO crusaders should get the hell out of there. And don’t y’all come back, neither — ya hear!
Jim Haygood said; “Decades later, it was all so irrelevant. Vietnam doesn’t even feature in US domestic politics.
Afghanistan will be similarly irrelevant 20 years on, after the NATO clown posse has been expelled like the Soviets who preceded them. But for now, the MSM stenographers direct our collective attention to it. The political elites are obsessed with it, since they’ve gotten themselves into a nasty quagmire. We are expected to share the obsessions of the bipartisan war coalition, led by the unlikely peace laureate Barack O’Bomba, Drone Messiah and Scourge of the Pashtuns.”
Viet Nam was not irrelevant at all, nor will Afghanistan (or Iraq) be “similarly irrelevant”.
The fact is they all exist as a sterling example of the ongoing pattern and practice of growing the Full Spectrum Dominance scamerican military machine (along with growing its auxiliary ‘coalition’ partners militaries), by exercising it/them regularly, and at the same time, growing, consolidating, and using Mr. Global propaganda as a means to deflect dissent when the masses in the nation state boxes get rowdy.
Last year scamerican military expenditures were 46.5% of the global total. The top 15 countries — the ‘auxiliary’ — account for 82% of the total. Those expenditures have been virtually unaffected by the intentionally created financial ’crisis’ and the scamerican expenditures have almost doubled (or more than, depending on who you believe) since 2001.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending
Most important is who has control of the military. Like credit, it is in the hands of the powerful global few through the ownership chain of puppets like; Obama, Blair, Brown, Harper, Sarkozy, etc.
Mr. Global Propaganda, owned and controlled by the wealthy global elite, also exhibits patterns and practices in bits and pieces of deja vu.
When dissent is intense the ’leaks’ appear, like the Ellsberg Pentagon Papers that set off a chain of events that ultimately made Nixon the sacrificial anode that absorbed public rage and subdued the considerable public dissent of Viet Nam. And there were plenty of system good cop bad cop characters at the time writing about the scamerican follies in Viet Nam like Polk is now writing about similar follies in Afghanistan. And … we now have the Wiki leaks. Will Kissinger be in Paris soon negotiating with the Taliban? Have we seen this movie before?
Bottom line the wealthy ruling elite control the formidable global credit and military machines, and Mr. Global Propaganda, all through hijacked governments.
The masses have non responsive to the will of the people governments and the weapons of war are now creeping onto the domestic battlefield — we now have Reaper and Predator type drones flying the Mexican and Canadian borders. How long before your local cops will have them and they are linked to red light cameras, facial recognition software that also reads license plates, homeland security no fly lists, DMV Warrant lists, etc.?
And of course collateral damage of the little brown folks is OK over there so we will couple it with the rationale for high speed pursuit in protection of private property that we already have over here (fuck human life!) and let the missiles fly. I am sure you can hardly wait for the first time a car in front of you, or beside you, as you drive home from work (or maybe on your way to the gym to get healthy), suddenly explodes violently and kills a lot of innocents and disfigures you for life.
The Atlantic is a rag opinion shaping tool of the wealthy elite.
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
“And of course collateral damage of the little brown folks is OK over there so we will couple it with the rationale for high speed pursuit in protection of private property that we already have over here (fuck human life!)”
Like Glenn Beck, our illustrious governor, Jan Brewer, stokes fear and loathing here with reports of headless bodies littering the Arizona desert. Although hallucinating, she may not be entirely out of her mind. Our 2,000-mile border with Mexico is the sharpest land division of rich and poor anywhere in the world—made worse by the “miracle” of SHAFTA (by design?). And on that border lies “the murder capital of the world”, Juarez, with thousands of murders annually, violence spreading to other border areas, the capital and other areas.
But what is widely described as an escalation of the drug war in Mexico, including pandemic kidnappings, is, IMO, more likely an attempt to paper over a more serious combustionm—the disjointed and unpredictable pangs of revolution against that country’s criminal plutocracy. And following DownSouth’s observation about the “Mexicanization of the United States”, it could well be a window into our own future.
A window for sure …
All externalizations (deceptions, tools of dominance) of all human organisms are, and can be, used against the creator of them. That is why I always say be careful what you externalize. The past and present are always prelude to future. Do the Mexican drug wars mask political machinations and portend the future?
Has a cat got an ass?
Is a pig’s pussy pork?
Etc., etc. …
Good run down of the re-purposing of military weaponry and bringing it to scamerica …
Excerpt;
“But foreign wars and occupations have their domestic analogues, measured not only in dollars but in broken lives as unemployment and home foreclosure rates soar; inconsequential matters for those whose business is to keep us “safe.”
According to Homeland Security Market Research, while the economic downturn “has had an adverse effect on the 2010 US Private Sector Homeland Security (HLS) market … the market is positioned to recover strongly in the 2011-2014 period.”
Call it a “counterterrorism stimulus package” for America’s largest defense and security firms, one fully consonant with America’s role as a failing state.
As for the rest of us? We’ll have to content ourselves with mindless flag-waving, feverish fear-mongering and troglodytic nationalism, an atavistic witch’s brew and media spectacle rolled-out as the hottest new game the whole family can play: the anti-Muslim pogrom.”
More here ..,
http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/
Are we ready for the election boycotts yet?
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
Great link for the fav’ folder, thanks. The next bubble on its way up—the only growth industry in town. Get in now! No penny stock, this one is going up like a mushroom cloud. From the link:
“According to Homeland Security Market Research, while the economic downturn ‘has had an adverse effect on the 2010 US Private Sector Homeland Security (HLS) market … the market is positioned to recover strongly in the 2011-2014 period.'”
“Call it a ‘counterterrorism stimulus package’ for America’s largest defense and security firms, one fully consonant with America’s role as a failing state.”
WTF? “Private Sector Homeland Security (HLS) market” including “population management”? ‘Invest in the Raytheon Pain Ray; its hot! Hideous truths, hiding in plain sight. This can’t possibly end well.
Doug, your welcome on the link — spread the ‘love’!
Yes, it is all pretty brutal and at the same time indicative of what we are all incrementally being sucked into. Considering the vast numbers of folks employed in the military machine and finance it does look bleak. Never have so many labored so long and so hard on the tools of their own demise.
Keep hammering!
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
One Lump Or Two? James Howard Kunstler
is such a perfectly true summary of everything that I have been thinking. I wish I could have written it, but he did a much better job than I would have.
I don’t know if it can change anything, but it is the kind of in-your-face honesty that we need more of.
Glenn Beck = Father Coughlin without a collar. That guy was all sound and fury sans result, too. Don’t be confused by all the fustications of these Little Ozes the Irascibles; they have no money and organization of their own. Its the unpatriotic selfish billionaries behind them which are the worry. Follow the money, not the motions, sez I.
Kunstler accuses Beck and followers of bigotry, yet Dr. Martin Luther King’s niece practically emceed the second hour of the rally, and the ceremonies honored men and women of all races and backgrounds.
On the other hand, Kunstler substitutes his own form of bigotry: anti-religious bigotry. Writing, “Naturally, Beck invoked prayer against this prospect, which is what people resort to when they don’t understand what is happening to them,” he implies that all who pray are confused fools. No, Christians are to pray in good times and bad, whether what happens to them is good or ill. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
The White House insists that Obama is a Christian who prays daily. I feel that Obama’s choices in office are a test of his religious sincerity, and I would say the same about Bush or any other politician — most of whom do not fare very well by that yardstick, no matter what political philosophy they profess.
What I find most amusing is Kunstler’s conclusion: “The bigger mystery in all this — if I may perhaps engage in some nostalgia of my own — is: what happened to reasonable, rational, educated people of purpose in this country to drive them into such burrow of cowardice that they can’t speak the truth, or act decisively, or even defend themselves against such a host of vicious morons in a time of troubles?”
The Tea Partiers are not vicious. Tea Partiers are not throwing acid in womens’ faces. Tea Partiers are not taking hostages at cable TV networks and threatening lives. I don’t personally know a single one who is not a decent person. As to why “reasonable, rational, educated people” have failed so decisively, I posit that the obvious answer is that they’ve abandoned the institutions which teach moral rectitude and moral courage, the virtues which served to build our country. Having abandoned the notion of the value of prayer and a return to traditional values, Kunstler is ironically puzzled at the well-educated Ruling Class behaving so badly and ineffectively. Effect, meet cause.
Eric, I’m very intrigued. Please expand on this.
I feel that Obama’s choices in office are a test of his religious sincerity, and I would say the same about Bush or any other politician — most of whom do not fare very well by that yardstick, no matter what political philosophy they profess.
Hmm. Not as interesting as the thing he nailed to the church door, way back when.
My post was originally a reply to a spam-ish post by “Martin Luther” but that post got deleted so my strange post remains.
Just thought I’d explain why my little post seems totally random.
All this talk about thorium cycle reactors lately makes me wonder if T. Boone Pickens owns a huge deposit of thorium as well as lots of natural gas production and wind generation. I keep seeing article after article all of a sudden. Why is this getting so much attention now? Anyone know if there is a concerted thorium reactor PR campaign or if this is just the herd instincts of the media?
Thorium has been well-known to technically educated people for many years. The fact that it is only now getting some attention is testament to the fact that our so-called science and energy reporters are uninformed goobers who can’t see beyond the press releases pushed at them.
Experimental prototype thorium reactors were built in the 1960’s-70’s. Why such efforts were abandoned I haven’t a clue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_breeder_reactor
Proliferation risk is a big concern. Also, the reactors are far more expensive to build and remain uneconomical due to low prices for uranium.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/qa-thorium-reactor-designer-ratan-kumar-sinha
On the progress made by India in this area.
Very interesting interview.
Thank you very much tyaresun.
I could be mistaken, but I thought the reactors using thorium to produce power _don’t_ pose a proliferation risk.
A country like India can use a Thorium based reactor to produce weapons grade uranium.
The big advantage of thorium is that the lifetime of its byproducts is less than 10 years. See: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/593299/thorium-series
Compare this with the Uranium series:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/619243/uranium-series
The disadvantage is that thorium by itself can not create a self-sustaining reaction. I would bet CERN got involved because one way to get around this is to beam particles in to keep the reaction going.
While it’s easy to dismiss cash for clunkers , o do have to wonder how much of the continued drop in demand for gasoline is a result of moving those suvs of the road
The Cash for Clunkers was an abysmal failure.
Why reward people for their bad decisions?
They choose to buy the gas guzzlers and many got huge tax breaks to buy them that were in place for years under Bush .
The people who were sensible and bought cars that got decent mileage got nothing out of Cash for Clunkers. Not one dime because of the way the bill was written.
To add insult to injury there were no tax breaks for hybrids while this was going on.
MASSIVE AMERICAN INSANE GOVERNMENT FAIL
Re Fuld:
In Too Big to Fail it’s funny how Sorkin’s depiction of Fuld changes. At first he wants Fuld to come off as well-meaning but too passive and therefore the victim of stupid, arrogant subordinates.
But since they were purged and McDade, someone Sorkin clearly idolizes, took over as president, now McDade is depicted as making a heroic attempt to save Lehman while Fuld keeps sabotaging things with his obnoxious stupidity and schizoid negotiating style (like in the parts Yves excerpted at this blog; and the Korean fiasco is even funnier).
So the Fuld of today is the same Fuld Sorkin is depicting by this time of year in 2008.
And the Fuld money quote per Sorkin is:
“Where’s my Jamie deal?”
Pretty much sums up Fuld’s actions to me
At the point I’ve gotten to in the book, it seems like everyone’s whining for that. Ken Lewis is basically threatening to hold his breath till he passes out unless they give him a “Jamie deal” and lots of other concessions before he’ll buy Lehman.
Sorkin fraudulently represents Paulson and Bernanke as being extremely reluctant about bailing anybody out; Paulson in particular is supposed to be adamantly against it. Meanwhile they keep doing it, and the banksters are clearly correct that all they have to do is keep collapsing and keep whining, and they’ll get everything they want.
I found the article on health care to be quite accurate as to how employers are handling the explosion of health care costs. As a small employer we have had to use the same calculus of higher deductibles and fixed contributions for years to manage the escalating costs. However, the quote that this year saw the smallest increase in years is ludicrous. I don’t know of any small business in New Jersey that didn’t see an increase of 20+%
California just saw a similar health premium pop, ranging from 14 to 29%. LA Times article link:
http://tinyurl.com/2asar2n
Entrenching the existing broken system, with its collusion, price discrimination, capacity controls, and cost-plus economics, is guaranteed to set off a monstrous price spiral.
In northern N.J., Valley Hospital in Ridgewood has mounted a vicious political campaign to stop a bankrupt hospital in Westwood from re-opening under new management. Valley hates competition, and is manipulating state capacity controls to suppress it. But federal antitrust enforcers are nowhere to be seen. So of course, hospital charges are going to spiral upward, when thug-like hospitals are allowed to deep-six competitors like Mafia garbage contractors.
Chalk up another train wreck for the central planners.
“Chalk up another train wreck for the central planners.”
I am not a fan of central planning, but I was amazed at your comment, which was pretty much for the first three paragraphs, “so if you have two and you add two to that, you have four.”
Then, if your final sentence, you basically said, “so that means that square root of 72 is 78.”
[Point: This is how people think. They gather the facts, they analyze the facts, then they disregard the facts *and* the analysis and continue to believe whatever it is they believed before no matter how tenuously related to, or in direct opposition to, the new facts and analysis at hand.]
The NJ health commissioner is the central planner in this case.
When supply is restricted, prices go up.
What part of Econ 101 do you not understand?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/01/AR2009060100596.html
Apparently the person who linked this was properly motivated, like maybe sloppy drunk and acting on a dare.
The article opens with a lie, to wit – a crowd of 87,000 when nearly everyone else reported +/- 300,000. It then descends rapidly to vituperative name calling.
Let me be clear. I am NO defender of Glenn Beck. Nor do I take issue with the author’s opinions or conclusions.
I strongly object to this form of journalism intruding in an adult oriented blog.
Until the author crosses that adult threshold, he’ll be stuck eating at the childrens’ table at Thanksgiving and his articles will probably be used to line bird cages.
Thanks for your forbearance.
TW
I gather this was in reply to the Kunstler link.
I still think it was delightful. I guess you don’t like the blunt and derisive style. Oh well. I think it was not inappropriate giving the “state of discourse” we witness now.
I think his picture of where we are versus where we ought to be is pretty accurate. The polite, adult version of arguing this standoff hasn’t been getting us very far toward solving anything.
That’s a really poorly photoshopped antidote.
To counter the NYT : my employer, employing over 20,000 people in this city alone, has not passed any health care cost raises onto its employees for 3 years now, and will be the same next year. Premiums haven’t risen since 2007.
I’m sure health care oremium increases happening to many, but not to all.
And to counter you, my employer of well over 1K full time employees has had two consecutive 20% increases in premiums, and I fully expect another 20% increase this year. And this is under the supposedly super cheap, super high-deductible choice that when you add the dollars up, is what the company is forcing everyone to buy.
I need to second Unsympathetic’s response. My employer also has not nor plans to pass any healthcare increases on to their workers. We are in CA. Also, I may add they are expanding, hiring and doing quite well. I recognize that many businesses are not doing well, however the blanket statements littering the internet that the private sector is suffering across the board is simply complete and utter BS.
I read somewhere that there is a tree that owns itself legally.
Regarding today’s antidote, let’s hope this odd couple will be allowed to marry each other and that they eventually can own the sanctuary they live in.
good stuff today on the links for a lazy labor day weekend
we’ve got the Reverend Kunstler channeling the old Aztec pyramid and calling folks “racists” for showing up at Glen Beck’s rally. I think Farrakhan pulled in a lot more a few year’s back, so I don’t credit this rally with much of anything. So what if Glen Beck was a drunk and a loser at one point. Who cares? I’ve had my bad days too. Whatever. People are so tired of the “R” word, I mean really. It’s every man for himself, white, black, orange or pink.
and Mr. Hermanutz giving long form to Craazyman’s second law of economics, to wit: “one man’s externality is another man’s addiction.” My first law is “one man’s cost is another man’s revenue.” Those two laws explain a lot.
As Mr. Hermanutz explains, These laws illustrate the inherent futility of any endeavor to construct a systemically coherent body of thought based on market prices as facts of so-called “social utility.”
Makes me wonder if Rene Descartes would even invent Cartesian coordinates if he had to do it all over again. Probably not, unless it was his little joke. Ever notice how every economic article you see has a Cartesian coordinate graph? And if “I think therefore I am” were true, then what are we to make of all the bozos out there who don’t think but somehow still are? Not one has been indicted or even slapped on the wrist.
They’re all still there, still in charge, still being bozos.
Clearly Descartes was wrong, thinking is not a prequisite for being. Or really much of anthing, except thinking. That’s another law. ha ha ha.
Re Steve Keen’s piece.
I did miss it, (never would have been looking for it anyway) but its todays must read post for us non-pro economists.
IMHO its worthy of a followup full post.
Here is Ron Paul’s response to President Obama’s speech on our troop withdrawal from Iraq:
‘The Presidents announcement that all U.S. combat troops have left Iraq is no more believable than the Mission Accomplished declaration was in 2003.
Once again, we are being told the mission has been accomplished and our brave men and women are coming back home. Though the people are hopeful they remain skeptical, and rightfully so.
The biggest problem is that success in Iraq is undefinable since the mission was never defined. The reasons given for the invasion were based on misinformation. Now, the war has cost us hundreds of billions of dollars and this has contributed significantly to our economic woes.
Forty-four hundred Americans are dead, thirty thousand severely wounded, and more than a hundred thousand are suffering from serious health problems related to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. This alone should tell us that it was not worth the investment and the needless sacrifice of our young people and the taxpayers.
It is deceitful to imply we will avoid hostilities with this new policy. We still have to contend with:
* the 50,000 troops carrying weapons that remain in Iraq
* the 100,000 contractors that remain with more expected to go to Iraq
* the 9,000 special ops personnel trained in assassinations that remain in Iraq
* a huge embassy, bigger than the Vatican, that will remain
* Dozens of military bases that will stay
* Al Qaeda organizations that did not exist before the war
* Muqtada al Sadr, a strong nationalist who has gained much political power
* The fact that Iran benefits tremendously with the Shiites now in power in Iraq and is a close ally of al Sadr
Osama bin Laden wins by proving that America has an agenda of occupation in the Middle East. And, we continue to walk into his trap and hand him up his best recruitment tool in his efforts to incite hatred and terrorism against the United States.
Whats worse, President Obama made it clear last night that the troops and resources leaving Iraq will not come home to defend our country or ease our economic woes. They will instead be diverted to Afghanistan, perhaps also Pakistan and, I fear, even Iran.
From my viewpoint we are the losers in this fools errand of endless war. Tragically, this new policy is not one of peace but merely a charade that will severely undermine our national security and continue us down the path to bankruptcy a threat that we best not long ignore.’
[Ron Paul is way out to lunch in terms of monetary and fiscal policy, but he’s right on the money in terms of foreign policy and war-related issues.]
Ron Paul is way out to lunch in terms of foreign policy, but he’s right on the money in terms of monetary and fiscal policy.
I think we have a religious disagreement. ;)
This is not to say that I think Iraq was or is being handled properly.
What you are proposing is the worst of both worlds, Eric, so I do hope you’re pulling my leg.
Thanks, Cynthia. I was surprised by this:
“President Obama made it clear last night that the troops and resources leaving Iraq will not come home… They will instead be diverted to Afghanistan, perhaps also Pakistan and, I fear, even Iran.”
Since I rarely listen to Obama directly anymore, I didn’t catch that. I wonder if this really is a third escalation.
My conspiratorial mind is not so sure about this either, describing our former ally:
“Osama bin Laden wins by proving that America has an agenda of occupation in the Middle East. And, we continue to walk into his trap and hand him up his best recruitment tool in his efforts to incite hatred and terrorism against the United States.”
For the MIC, this is not a ‘trap’ but a clear ‘win-win’.
Me too thanks Cynthia.
I’d rather by far have Ron Paul in charge and making whatever mistakes he will make than anyone else in DC.
Before Cash for Clunkers there were tons of cars jamming the lots of dealers, their overflow lots, ports, and even hastily rented lots. The car makers would not take the cars back and dealerships in the area were forecasting that they would go out of business within three months. Cash for Clunkers may have pulled in buyers from the near future but it also allowed dealerships to adapt to the economic crisis and stay afloat. This literally kept several of my friends employed when they would otherwise have lost their job, lost their home and worse. So to say it had no effect on employment is false.
Thanks for sharing that observation.
A sharp philosopher might observe that, for some very successful people, it’s ‘I don’t think, therefore I am.’
Dang!
This is a response to craazyman and should have been posted right away his post.
he best sustained period in U.S. economic history—best rates of output expansion, best real median wage growth, best employment figures, best poverty reduction rates, best expansion of higher education, best patterns of economic security (e.g. Medicare), best infrastructure improvements (e.g interstate freeways), best progress in civil rights, most stable inflation rates, biggest reduction in national debt as a percentage of GDP etc—coincided with the least free market, least unregulated, most unionized, least floating currency exchange regime, highest tax rate period in U.S. economic history.
And to make sure America never has to endure such an affront to the genius of right wing conventional wisdom among economists, and to the naked avarice of the richest members of the citizenry, and to the most statesmen-like of our political scumbags, and to to the bright, shining lie that is our mainstream media, it is to be earnestly hoped that the Republicans win big in this election cycle, and begin at once to destroy this legacy, beating the crap out of the voting public in the process, so that said public will, in its rabid stupidity, blame it even more on the big-eared black man in the White House.
Brought to you by:
The GOP Seniors Dementia Alliance
and by
The Ungrateful Undead Boomers Coalition
and by
The Free Market Fiction Association
and by
The Palinomics Anti-Refudiation League
stunney, I sympathize with you. But, your points can be easily dismissed by people across the aisle (and even by people like me who are sympathetic). Consider:
– During the period you cite, US was still increasing its own oil production. *
– During the period you cite, foreign cities had to rebuild their factories. The riches you cite stem primarily from our good fortune of having two oceans separating our factories from Axis bombers. We became manufacturers and bankers to the world.
(* I wish Thatcherites would be so kind as to acknowledge that North Sea oil started filling the UK sails around the time she took over.)
So, although everything you say is true, it’s hard to prove that those factors — a more egalitarian society — were more important than the two factors I just cited.
A really outstanding piece on northern Mexico by Rory Carroll kicks off a three-part series for the Guardian.
Momentarily dropping the charade, Luque mentions he has no bodyguard. “What would be the point? If they decide to kill you then there would be two bodies instead of one.” Who would “they” be? The mayor smiles again. “I really don’t know.”
But someone knows a lot about the valley. During the Guardian’s tour there was barely another vehicle or soul in sight. Yet the next day the guide’s family received an anonymous phone call detailing our entire itinerary – who we met, what we discussed, even places where we slowed but did not stop – with precision.
…
In an opinion poll published last week 39% of people cited official corruption as the main driver of violence. Narco-trafficking – despite government claims and media echoes – was cited by a mere 14.6%.
Rory Carroll, “Mexico’s Drug War”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/03/mexico-drug-war-killing-fields
I’m no fan of David Frum, but I’ve been following the “liberaltarian” meme and trying to keep up with people like Bruce Bartlett and Dave Weigel and Glenn Greenwald.
This post is probably a biggie in that small world. Seems to me the whole point of the tea party thing (reaction by base to GWB failure) is nothing more than arousing inchoate anger but whatever, I’m far from DC and like it that way….
David Frum, “The Purge at Cato”
http://www.frumforum.com/the-purge-at-cato/comment-page-1#comments