What We Need

August 4th, 2011

The Economist, that once staid and altogether traditionally conservative bastion of reasonable economic thought, tells it like it is while issuing a common sense call for action... again.

"Extension of the payroll tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits would improve confidence, reduce projected fiscal tightening over the next year, and ease the suffering of the unemployed. The double-dip is at the door. Only quick action can send it packing now."

This isn't about entitlements. It's about the government not actively increasing the crisis of demand.

The Problem Is STILL Demand, ctd...

August 4th, 2011

We need a new WPA. It really is quite simple. Yet, the whole of legislative government seems willfully dismissive. Richard D. Wolff adds his voice to those pleading for a little common sense and takes aim at both parties:

"Neither party dares to return taxes on corporations and the rich to what they were. Neither party dares to advocate that government hire the unemployed to rebuild the US, to spend their government-job wages on maintaining their mortgages (reviving the housing industry) and thereby stimulate the whole economy from the bottom up. Above all, neither party dares admit that so long as production remains in the hands of tiny groups of rich shareholders and boards of directors, they will keep looting the system."

The country we were all born into, with its vibrant middle class, is effectively in limbo and the prospects for an American 21st Century are increasingly slim. The fact that this is all avoidable renders the current situation tragic in the literal sense of the word.