Why, Oh Why, Did No One Tell Me?
Giblets is back! Enuf said.
Week of April 13, 2008 - April 19, 2008
Where Have You Gone, Kevin Phillips?
A lonely nation turns its eyes to you.
As much as I admire the contributions of Dean Baker, Jared Bernstein, and Maggie Mahar and appreciate their willingness to join the discussions, I'm afraid their stories -- Dean (It's the housing bubble, stupid!), Jared (The middle class isn't getting its just deserts), and Maggie (Health care reform is possible but boy is it hard to do) -- are yesterday's news.
Over the past 25-30 years an economy modeled on industrial-capitalism has been transfigured into one modeled on finance-capitalism. The results are obvious: asset inflation; increased debt loads; large current account deficits; deteriorating infrastructure; unproductive investment; widening of income differences -- you can add your personal favorites.
These are results that most liberals should find unsatisfactory and ones they should want to correct. As Paul Krugman says America suffers from a "malaise" (a Carter parody?) whose cure is uncertain, as uncertain as are the understandings of the three Presidential aspirants. And he's right; the political elite has not yet come to grips with the economic changes which have taken place and has offered no real corrective. Indeed, the political elite has been a principal enabler.
Today's questions are straightforward: Should we turn away from the practice of credit-debt inflation? How harshly? How quickly? Who should bear the greatest suffering?
Where have you gone, Kevin Phillips?
As much as I admire the contributions of Dean Baker, Jared Bernstein, and Maggie Mahar and appreciate their willingness to join the discussions, I'm afraid their stories -- Dean (It's the housing bubble, stupid!), Jared (The middle class isn't getting its just deserts), and Maggie (Health care reform is possible but boy is it hard to do) -- are yesterday's news.
Over the past 25-30 years an economy modeled on industrial-capitalism has been transfigured into one modeled on finance-capitalism. The results are obvious: asset inflation; increased debt loads; large current account deficits; deteriorating infrastructure; unproductive investment; widening of income differences -- you can add your personal favorites.
These are results that most liberals should find unsatisfactory and ones they should want to correct. As Paul Krugman says America suffers from a "malaise" (a Carter parody?) whose cure is uncertain, as uncertain as are the understandings of the three Presidential aspirants. And he's right; the political elite has not yet come to grips with the economic changes which have taken place and has offered no real corrective. Indeed, the political elite has been a principal enabler.
Today's questions are straightforward: Should we turn away from the practice of credit-debt inflation? How harshly? How quickly? Who should bear the greatest suffering?
Where have you gone, Kevin Phillips?
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