bankrupt paradigm

The deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression… Steve Keen insists we need ‘weapons of mass economic reconstruction’.

Congressional as well as State and local leaders are confused. There’s much clamor based on old ideas, but few are facing facts. There’s real challenges that are unmet in energy, infrastructure, healthcare, education, trade….

Change is a very real thing.

Thomas Palley, Financial Times Economists’ Forum, December 2, 2010:

The main difference between the Clinton and Bush administrations was the former’s willingness to offer some helping-hand policies to cushion the harsh effects of the invisible hand.

Differences in outcomes were not policy driven but reflect the fact the Clinton administration enjoyed the good fortune of the Internet investment bubble. It also benefitted from the beginning of the housing bubble when American families had plenty of untapped home equity and credit.

President Obama’s fateful decision to go with Clintonomics meant the recession was interpreted as an extremely deep downturn rather than a crisis signaling the bankruptcy of the neoliberal paradigm that has ruled both Republicans and Democrats for thirty years.

Tax cuts don’t trickle down !

Lew Prince:

I’ve run a small business for more than 30 years, and the claim that more tax cuts for the rich can generate jobs at small businesses is ridiculous.

Expecting high-end tax cuts to trickle down as job creation is about as reasonable as pouring gasoline on your hood and expecting it to run your engine.

My company’s success or failure is tied to the economic health of our 24 employees, our customers, our community, our state and our country.

The quick-buck artists who have increasingly dominated our financial system since the 1970s don’t care about the long-term growth of companies or the well-being of the people who work at them. Now they’re trying to sell us more tax cuts for the rich — cloaked in concern over small-business owners and jobs.

When tax cut lobbyists tell you that small-business owners will use the money saved from lower tax rates to hire someone, they’ve got it backward. If Congress wants to help my company — and other small businesses — create jobs, it should support tax and economic policies that boost broad-based consumer income and spending.