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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (178361)	12/31/2011 12:43:51 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 543042

"We are in the mess we are because we followed Krugmans advice - we artificially stimulated the economy that then led to the housing boom." That wasn't Krugman's or Keynes advice! Krugman pointed out the housing bubble long ago. According to both, we should have been paying down deficits and debts when we were blowing the housing bubble, which should have been contained through tighter regulations, actual enforcement and higher interest rates. Those were the Bush years, and no Keynesians were at the wheel - Allan Greenspan and George W. Bush were. NOT Keynesians. The problem is whenever the (R)'s get the wheel, Keynesian economics goes back into the round file and we're back to borrow and spend Reaganomics. Clinton is the ONLY modern American president to actually attempt to right our economic ship through Keynes. But NOW is NOT the time. Perhaps our economic policy should be removed from the political sphere as the courts were? Made into a stand-alone independent entity, like the Supremes? That way presidents and congress would be handed an allowance (or not) and told "That's all you get, so don't spend it all on candy!"

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (178361)	12/31/2011 2:43:41 PM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 543042

<<<< We didn't even try to go on a diet as we instead started eating cupcakes with both hands - and Krugman was standing there handing out the cupcakes.>>> Good analogy. If you are starving to death, eating cupcakes with both hands is a good idea. There is nothing wrong with eating cupcakes when you are starving but once you are back on your feet, there are better food choices for a healthy outcome. Just like in Keynesian economics. When you are out of a job, with no access to health care, and you have to put food on the table to feed your family - you beg and borrow to stay alive and healthy enough to get back on your feet. Austerity in such circumstances is stupid. Back to Keynsian economics, when millions of people are unemployed, have no access to health care, government has to step in, borrow or print money to artificially create jobs and inflate the economy. When unemployment goes down, demand for goods and services go up, creating more jobs. Creating jobs is one of the Feds most important mandates. That is the reason for their existence. Once unemployment gets to a healthy low level, when more people are working and paying taxes, it is then time to repair the blance sheet. This is accomplished by balancing the budget. Balance the budget when there is near full employment . Inevitably however, when jerks take over the government and hand out money to friends in the miltary industrial complex, fight wars that do not have to be fought and giving taxbreaks to the super wealthy will create the kind of mess we are in. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The process wil be repeated, again an again. Keynesian economics is all about doing the math. It has nothing to do with religion or individual notions of morality and virtue. If you want to learn about economics, go to school and take some courses in mathematics. If you want to be a better person, go to church. Going to school and getting up to speed in mathematics and going to church are not mutually exclusive. But getting up to speed in mathematics should be mandatory.