IT'S CURIOUS HOW THE STIMULUS PACKAGE HAS PLAYED OUT...ECONOMICALLY AND POLITICALLY.
THE SMART PEOPLE...MOSTLY KEYNESIAN ECONOMISTS...LIKE PAUL KRUGMAN...SAY THE OBAMA "DEFICIT SPENDING"...A/K/A STIMULUS PACKAGE WAS TOO SMALL..
BUT THE CRACKPOT REPUBLICANS ARE RANTING AGAINST EVEN THAT "TOO SMALL" STIMULUS...! FOX NEWS IS IN KNOTS ABOUT "OBAMA SPENDING".... AS ARE ALL THE "LEADING" REPUBLICANS...
THIS RAISES AN INTERESTING QUESTION... ARE THE REPUBLICANS GOING AGAINST CONVENTIONAL ECONOMIC THINKING...? ARE THE REPUBLICANS LAPSING INTO SOME KIND OF BIZARRE CRACKPOT POPULISM THAT HAS NO INTELLECTUAL BASIS...?
IN SHORT...THE REPUBLICANS ARE DOING A "HOOVER"...AND TRYING TO BALANCE THE BUDGET DURING A GREAT DEPRESSION....!
BUT THERE IS ANOTHER CONSIDERATION...WHICH I THINK IS MORE LIKELY...AND MORE OMINOUS.
IT IS VERY POSSIBLE THAT THE US ECONOMY IS SO STRUCTURALLY DAMAGED BY FREE TRADE, DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND DEBT...THAT IT SIMPLY CAN NOT RECOVER...BY KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS ALONE...
THIS IS LIKELY TO BE HOW THINGS TURN OUT...
KEYNES MAKE CERTAIN ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT MATURE ECONOMIES... FIRST IS THAT THEY WERE RUN RATIONALLY...BY PEOPLE WHO CARED ABOUT THE NATION AND IT'S ECONOMY...
AMERICANS HAVE NOT HAD THAT FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS...
FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS THE US ECONOMY WAS RUN SOLELY TO BE "LOOTED" BY THE WALL STREET AND OTHER ELITES....
THERE WAS NEVER ANY CONSIDERATION OF THE "COMMON GOOD"... HENCE THE HEALTH CARE DEBACLE... EVERY OTHER LARGE NATION HAS "SOLVED" THEIR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS...DECADES AGO...!
NOT IN AMERICA...!
NOW THE WHEELS ARE COMING OFF...
THE CRAZY RIGHT IS RANTING IRRATIONALLY...
AND THE WALL STREET ELITES...INCLUDING PEOPLE LIKE GEITHNER AND SUMMERS...ARE STUCK WITH A SYSTEM THAT IS STRUCTURALLY IN COLLAPSE...AND UNRESPONSIVE TO KEYNESIAN "CURES..."
THE US ECONOMY IS NOT SALVAGEABLE...BY CONVENTIONAL WISDOM ALONE... AND THAT IS WHY I THINK THAT KRUGMAN AND THE KEYNESIAN MAINSTREAM WILL BE WRONG...
AMERICANS NEED TO START FROM SQUARE ONE... THEY NEED TO "BREAK SOME EGGS" IF THIS OMLET IS EVER GOING TO BE MADE...
OTHERWISE...MORE DRIFT...MORE DECLINE...
AND I FEAR THE RADICAL RIGHT WILL "WIN" ...AND USHER IN AN ERA OF FASCISM...
THUS IS THE HISTORY OF EVERY NATION ABANDON BY IT'S ELITES...
AND AMERICA HAS BEEN ABANDON AND LOOTED BY IT'S ELITES...
WHAT IS TO BE DONE...?
