In all this, did anyone ever mention that after winning a war on two fronts, the confidence resultant was sufficient to move forward? Or that the manufacturing destruction worldwide, leaving us with the only intact economy, might have something to do with postwar prosperity?
I understand that economists like the comfort of complex models, but simplicity is usually more relevant to reality.

Yay, team! The depression will bring us together!

My final reflection is that we need to realize that the "problem" we face is one of abundance, not of scarcity. Economists only know how to think about scarcity. Capital lusts after "scarcity rents". When there's abundance, dead labor can't earn interest for no other reason than being "scarce" (when it isn't).

We face a choice between euthanasia of the rentier class and hard times. It requires a Copernican shift. Capital is NOT the center of the universe. But if we continue to PRETEND that it is, we'll get the hard times.

So put on your thinking caps, folks and CHANGE!

Thank you Paul for joining in here. Contributing your knowledge and insight is good for everyone. I was happy to see your latest in the NYT clearly raising an eyebrow to similarities between Maddof and other potential banking or Wall Street miscreants. For the vast majority who have trouble balancing their checkbooks that perspective is common and not likely to change. Its good to keep in mind that more often than not things are exactly as they appear. Let's face it, banks or other finacial firms 'losing' trillions is at least peculiar if not altogether suspect.

Here is your next Mission Impossible. Restore the trust of Americans in their financial system and in economists. I hope you can figure out how to do this. I think if you don't, a lot more than this message will self-destruct.

What I've not seen as any acknowledgment by the mainstream economists is that we are entering a new world. This is a world where we have too many people and too few resources.

Capitalism was a system for an "empty" world, where there was always room for expansion. Land (in the case of the US), and abundant raw materials. So the capitalist model of borrowing to finance growth followed by paying back the investments with interest from the "profits".

These profits were obtained by not factoring in the hidden costs (externalities) of resource depletion and environmental damage.

This model will no longer work in the future. Global warming shows that even the huge atmosphere can't be regarded as an unlimited waste disposal site.

We need to come up with a new economic and social model which is based upon a steady-state economy. One where things can get better, but not bigger.

Instead what we see are discussions of how best to get the gravy train back on track as quickly as possible. If this is all that comes out of the present situation a valuable opportunity for long-range planning and innovation will have been wasted.

Were you ever considered for a post on Obama's economic tearm... thought Obama is so open to having the 'best and the brightest'......

What grade does Obama deserve from the almost completed roll-out of his Administration (of his top tier depts). I say a C (a C+ if I were a more charitable person).

Nominating Hillary Clinton as SOS is counter-balanced (cancelled out) by Sec of Labor appt of Hilda Solis (finally, someone from California - a state which is on the brink of BANKRUPTCY itself): Los Angeles County ousted the Superintendent of LA Unified School district at the cost of $600,000+ in order to buy out his remaining contract, and then the taxpayer is slammed again with a contract between the new Superintendent and County Board, agreeing if the County dismisses the new superintendent in the same way, this new contract stipulates that the TAXPAYER would foot the buy-out bill for over a million dollars (around $1.3 mil). California is currently about $80 billion in the red....

Another notable appointment canceling each other out is Sec of Agriculture (former Iowa Gov tom Vilsack) and Obama’s Sec of Energy, Nobel Laureate Steven Chu of the Lawrence Berkeley Nat’l Lab. One other prominent selection worth mentioning; the appointment of Timothy Geithner (NY Federal Pres) canceling out Larry Summer’s advisory role to Obama in the White House.

And this just in from Fox News (even if you hate Fox/Faux News). Congress voted themselves another PAY RAISE: According Fox, ‘Members of Congress make an average of $169,300 a year, with Congressional leaders making slightly more. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cailf., makes $217,400, while the majority and minority leaders in the House and Senate each make $188,100. The raise will increase the average salary to about $174,000, up 2.8 percent. Pelosi's and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's offices did not respond to FOXNews.com's requests for comment. Pay raises for public officials, whether at the federal, state or local level, usually spark outrage among taxpayer advocates. But the deepening financial crisis has led even a few lawmakers to object.’

Taxpayers too have a bailout safety net – it’s called Unemployment insurance for up to 9 months to go find yourself another job in a job market where there are NONE because Congress shipped most of them overseas (NAFTA, CAFTA, globalization, etc.) and approves of Bailouts to financial institutions without accountability, transparency, or even an ethical duty to look out after the average taxpaying American.

religious sect may degenerate into a political faction,' wrote James Madison, but the new American nation would nevertheless be protected against the ungovernable combination of religious fervor and political power as long as the Constitution prohibited the federal government from establishing any particular creed as preeminent.
Egitim | Chat

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