Comments on: Politics Matter

By: Misaki

Misaki — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 04:40:59 +0000

>more consumption, which feeds back into greater demand, more jobs, etc.

but… corporate profits were at $1.6 trillion last year! You would think that it means we have plenty of consumption, no?

The missing link of course is that money that goes to the rich is less likely to be spent. Robert Reich has been using this point lately, and it explains why “fiscal stimulus” in the form of deficit spending (including taxes) has not been effective for long-term growth.

Job creation without government spending, inflation, or trade barriers: http://jobcreationplan.blogspot.com/

By: Ralf

Ralf — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 16:12:36 +0000

The blandly neutral “dysfunctional Congressional politics” does not dare to name names. Ornstein and Mann do. As do I: the bulk of the dysfunction is in the GOP.
Until that gets an open, realistic airing, the stimulative solutions we need are out o reach.

By: Jared Bernstein

Jared Bernstein — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:41:52 +0000

Um…thanks, but I was way off…as was everyone else. I did, however, expect the number to come in below expectations…but not as much as it actually did!

By: perplexed

perplexed — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:09:53 +0000

-”Beyond gridlock, dysfunctional Congressional politics have led to self-inflicted wounds to the economy, wounds that are being freshly reopened with talk of going over the fiscal cliff … the loss of extended unemployment insurance benefits for hundreds of thousands of jobless persons.”

Compensate the victims or open the markets to bid-ask competition. Closed markets are not a form of capitalism, they’re a form of plutocracy. How is denying access to jobs not a denial of the Constitutional protections of the right to “life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness”? If the pain were shared and the victims of these policies fairly compensated, the politicians would be facing a very different electorate and would have to actually pay a price for not representing these people instead of their campaign funders. Its not so much our Constitution that is failing us as it is our enforcement of its protections. Having the ability to stick this minority with the full costs of the output gap they create and extend with their policies is not something our oligarchs should be allowed to do without fully compensating them.

If your continued election is based on campaign contributions (& superpack spending) and a small politically powerless group pays the price of you’re supporting your funders, where is there any incentive in this system to “self-correct”?

By: Mike Hunt

Mike Hunt — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:51:16 +0000

Jared you predicted the number BRILLIANT- I will always come to your site even though I am to the right of Paul Rand! I appreciate your view and although I disagree I like how you explain yourself – Free markets work – I feel our crisis was and will continue because we focus on the goal of gov’t programs rather than results.

By: save_the_rustbelt

save_the_rustbelt — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:16:20 +0000

Stall speed until January at the earliest.

Brutal and nasty.