Comments on: Loser Liberalism is a Winner

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:06:16 +0000

The Presidental race is toast. We need to start looking at what’s going on down ticket.

By: Mike Sax

Mike Sax — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:36:08 +0000

What I think Jared is what you think: I just finished it and it is a winner. Baker makes a great point that while we liberals are so opposed to extending the Bush tax cuts-which I believe we should be-most of us are pretty unaware of things like monetary policy and the power of the Treasury.

He also makes the important thing that even in good policies liberals have to understand you will never please everyone even among your constituents.

I have become a lot more aware of monetary policy recently. However the part of the Treasury and the overvalued dollar is a dimension I far from properly appreciated. I agree, Baker is a must read.

Please give this a try for the economic debates

http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2011/11/illusion-of-fiscal-discipline-part-2.html

By: Jared Bernstein

Jared Bernstein — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:57:25 +0000

I think the point is less that we’re pulling for those who need help and more that the policy goals of conservatives are not really for free markets but for policies that redistribute money and power upwards.

By: Tom Cantlon

Tom Cantlon — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:30:40 +0000

I’m a little confused (not unusual). I thought what we liberals and progressives were supporting and pushing for was to get government policies that did that whole list you had, of supporting workers, etc. Why is this a revelation?

By: Rick McGahey

Rick McGahey — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:33:30 +0000

Adam Smith was hard pressed to find the “invisible hand” as well. Smith was no romantic about business people (“merchants” or “masters” in his day). Smith saw them as having the same self-interest as others, and thus saw them as prone to tilt things their way whenever they could. A few choice nuggets from The Wealth of Nations:

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
(Book 1, Chapter 10)

“We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject.”
(Book 1, Chapter 8)

“It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expence, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”
Book V, Chapter II

By: John Chambless

John Chambless — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:09:01 +0000

Why do I almost never hear anyone talk of ONE solution to solve Health Care inflation? Why is there NOT A TRUE PUBLIC OPTION for Health Care/Pharmaceutical Insurance?

Repeal [NOT "FIX"] 1945 McCarran–Ferguson Act [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarran–Ferguson_Act] …, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011-1015, is a United States federal law that exempts the business of insurance from most federal regulation… The only other “business” exempted from anti-trust federal regulation is baseball.

If Speaker of the House [@SpeakerBoehner] Rep. John Boehner [@johnboehner], House Majority Leader [@GOPLeader] Eric Cantor [@EricCantor], artificial (corporate) entity @McConnellPress want “less regulation” for “We the People,” they cannot now each say, “where do I start?”

By: the buckaroo

the buckaroo — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:03:34 +0000

…I believe the working title was Crumbs From the Cupboard, a recipe book of Conservative Values in Hard Times.

Redistribution of welfare, as Hicks, Kaldor & even Little saw it, increases the efficiency of society & thus is to be recommended…name a sane economist that can argue the contrary.

By: perplexed

perplexed — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:51:32 +0000

Looks like we may finally be getting some people to “step up to the plate” and redirect these discussion to more honest place. We’ve been waiting way too long for our Teddy Roosevelts & FDR’s to stand up to these deceptive practices and misleading memes! Its not at all surprising that its people like Dean Baker, James Galbraith, and Hacker & Pierson stepping up. Hopefully we can get behind them and stop allowing the oligarch’s to control the discussions. We need to get past the current distractions and on to discussion and implementation of real solutions.

By: John Chambless

John Chambless — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:42:47 +0000

Why do I almost never hear anyone talk of ONE solution to solve Health Care inflation? Why is there NOT A TRUE PUBLIC OPTION for Health Care/Pharmaceutical Insurance?

Repeal (NOT “FIX”} 1945 McCarran–Ferguson Act [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarran–Ferguson_Act] …, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011-1015, is a United States federal law that exempts the business of insurance from most federal regulation… The only other “business” exempted from anti-trust federal regulation is baseball.

By: Scott Supak

Scott Supak — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:34:54 +0000

I’m still reading Baker’s book, but one thing it has taught me is that the Fed could be making a huge difference right now, but is not, because it ignores the dual mandate in order to make sure rich people don’t lose money to inflation. I was also shocked to see how much money we could save if the Fed just held all those bonds and returned the interest to the treasury.

But what really surprised me is that the Treasury Department could, right now, take steps to lower the value of the dollar, which would create millions of jobs for exporters here in the US. Obviously, Wal Mart likes the strong dollar, not only because it makes imports cheaper, but because when people don’t have good paying jobs in manufacturing for export, they have to shop at Wal Mart.