Neo-Liberals ideas are falling a part.

Main Street USA does not care about Deficits and Debts, especially when they see the USA fighting stupid wars.

DC is very out of touch with reality, which is going to cause them a lot of problems in 2012

A lot of congress people up for re-election in 2012, are going to get a wake up call! USA citizens only care about the USA economy! Period!

Cutting Social Security
Cuttin Medicare
are not going to win you many friends
when OBAMA just cut taxes for the rich.

Yes! the current Depression the USA finds itself in, belongs to OBAMA, no more Bush great recession.

OBAMA now owns the USA economy, he voted for the bush tax cuts, and has become an Ayn Rand lover.

the USA MSM rating are falling, which is great! where are people getting there news from now? :)

It is obvious that the WH does not care about expanding the economy and, therefore, developing more jobs. The WH only cares about wall st and the way they play financial poker by betting on financial instruments. The way the banksters and wall streeters play, the stock market moves, but the economy actually goes nowhere.

Thanks for the post DDay.

It seems that both parties are playing chicken, but they’re drivingin the same direction and the end of the road is a brick wall.

DC is very out of touch with reality, which is going to cause them a lot of problems in 2012

Ever heard of Diebold?

I agree with much of what you say, but I don’t think the MOTU lose one wink of sleep over the outcome of 2012. Whatever outcome the MOTU want for 2012 is a done deal, no matter what Main Street wants. JMHO, of course.

Don’t be silly, DDay. The Federal Government doesn’t create jobs – The Man From Orange-Glo said so.

Agreed. Whoever controls the voting machines controls the outcome.

Sounds like the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Austan Goolsbee, thinks the way to recovery is more defense spending.

“But just to extrapolate from Goolsbee, what these Democrats are saying is that the economy needs to grow slower, create less jobs and cause more suffering for individuals in the near term. That’s the goal of US fiscal policy right now.”

You said it! Truth! Otherwise, they would have been working overtime for the past 2 1/2 years to bring America back to some better economic standing with jobs and exports.

After seeing all the changes in the Middle East this year, they will have to soon find friendlies to war on. Most of the countries and their citizens have had enough and working to overthrow their despots.

A brick wall for the middle class.

No one could have anticipated slower growth after government spending cuts./s

…and we’re the f’ing r*tards.

“Defense” spending is the least stimulative, most wasteful form of government spending. It is an area where spending should be drastically reduced.

Hush up, you sanctimonious-purist DFH! ;-)

Still, the statement here is that reduced government spending causes slower growth.

it’s actually net spending, not gross spending (all other things being equal. for example, constant private sector desire to save and constant current account balance).

but at least someone in the administration is talking fiscal policy. that’s a bit of good news! thanks, i could use some good news right now because i think, dday, you are exactly right on with this:

…what these Democrats are saying is that the economy needs to grow slower, create less jobs and cause more suffering for individuals in the near term. That’s the goal of US fiscal policy right now.

yep. more suffering for individuals in the near term and in the long term.

No, whoever buys the politicians controls the policies.

And the answer to the question of how to stimulate the economy now that growth has slowed? Why, cut government spending *more*, of course!

Ha! So you can see how well they want to stimulate the economy.

*heh* It’s more a mental illness than retardation, this sanctimonious purity.

Well honestly, what’s the problem? Stocks are up, economy is terrific…for the rich.

Definitely! Cerebal Insufficiency.

Yep. I hear the Caymans are running out of room for store-front banking centers.

agree, it does matter greatly where the spending is going. we are massively under spending on productive investment (both in the govt and private sectors). in my dreams we would spend on infrastructure of all kinds…. (education, environment, energy, communications, etc).

Barry is following the script that FDR used when the GOP got him to try balancing the budget. The economy plummeted after rising steadily. FDR had the “good” fortune of having Hitler running rampant in Europe so he could mobilize the economy for war, although the GOP here that wanted to reduce spending had quite a few of its members supporting Hitler while others were plotting to overthrow FDR.

Even expanded wars aren’t going to allow us to spend our way out of this through the private sector because we’ve all seen that the private sector doesn’t give back a cent, let alone allow anything to trickle down. The fact that gas prices are over $4.00 and oil companies are reporting record profits along with NYMEX trading firms in the energy sector enjoying spectacular profits from speculative activity in that sector proves that the financial “reform” that was supposed to have been so onerous didn’t do a goddamn thing. Until the derivatives market is tightly regulated and the government actually starts governing instead of reacting to the arrows shot at it by the GOP, we are completely screwed.

Health care! Spend on single-payer healthcare! That would be the single best government investment, IMO

create less jobs

and fewer employment

You are correct. But there is a lot of P-O-R-K in defense spending. Especially in red meat America.

Problem now is that most of our military hardware is being manufactured outside of the US so it does no good to our economy, and war costs never get repaid really.

On that TBTF issue, I caught several articles on the twitter this morning that the EU is going to investigate themselves on the CDSwaps that the bankstas used and caused the world economy to drop out of the bottom.

The private sector is worth the investment, just not to the usual suspects listed as “small businesses”. Kevin Baron has written some great diaries at myFDL about how the government contracts with big businesses who use loopholes to qualify as small businesses while the real little guys are denied investments.

And the answer to the question of how to stimulate the economy now that growth has slowed? Why, cut government spending *more*, of course!

that is the neoliberal two-step. as Thomas Palley described last october in a meeting of the Economists for Peace and Security (from the transcript):

The first critical challenge I referred to is to discredit the fiscal austerity agenda. Here’s a figure that shows average total G7 government debt as a percentage of GDP. It’s actually an IMF chart. The IMF, when they focus on this, focus at the end of the chart, and you do see that total debt has increased very significantly after the financial crisis. But as usual with the IMF, they miss what is really important in this picture. Something happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s that started to reverse and change structurally our budget outcomes around the entire G7, and it includes the US, though the patent in which these developments took place does vary a little from country to country. It was not the oil shock. It was the turn to neoliberal policy that increased unemployment, lowered growth, lowered taxes, and above all, raised interest rates. That is absolutely critical. To me, it means we will not fix our budget challenges until we reverse neoliberal policy. The problem is that we are stuck in what a friend of mine, Stephan Schulmeister, calls “the neoliberal two-step.”

The two-step works as follows. Step one is you adopt neoliberal economic policy and create a problem. Step two is then you claim we need more neoliberal policy to solve the problem. It really is that simple. That is exactly what’s going on with the budget deficit debate in this talk about taxes – irresponsible tax policy creates huge budget deficits, and then we need more irresponsible tax policy to get out of it. Same way we talk about regulation. Irresponsible regulation and lack of regulation created a problem, so guess what? A lot of the Congress says we need less regulation, more of that irresponsible stuff. The same on labor market policy. The same on trade policy. The same across the board with federal reserve policy. You look everywhere you go, and you see the imprint of the neoliberal two-step, and we have to get that message across here. We have to discredit neoliberal policy because we cannot fix these problems until we abandon neoliberal policy and restore a pro-people shared prosperity policy, but that’s really very tough. It’s tough because a lot of Democrats, a lot of the media, a lot of voters, and almost the entire economics profession believe in neoliberal economics in one form or another.

More suffering for non-wealthy and un-”connected” individuals.

The well-heeled, well-connected will, doing their good “Gawd’s work” … do very well …

The majority of human beings in America, and for that matter, the world are going to be caught in a world of hurt.

If the American people ever realize, in sufficient numbers, what is going on, do you think it poassible, selise, that the people of America might realize that they should have common cause with the majority of the rest of the world’s people?

Or will the undeniable truth of common plight continue to elude the conscience of Americans?

DW

the health of a nation’s citizens is one of the most important elements of our national infrastructure. not to mention universal healthcare being a, you know, human rights issue. :)

most of our military hardware is being manufactured outside of the US

Way to keep the country safe!

One hopes that your dreams, selise, may become the shared dreams of an awakened, conscious citizenry …

(Keep on keepin’ on!!!, selise.)

DW

Your sound-bites are powerful and effective … they are “hitting” home.

Absolutely superb, selise!

;~DW

If the American people ever realize, in sufficient numbers, what is going on, do you think it poassible, selise, that the people of America might realize that they should have common cause with the majority of the rest of the world’s people?

yes.

i have far, far more faith in the ordinary citizens who attend tea party rallies than i do almost any politician (or dc insider or wannabe insider or bankster, etc).

A wee bit off-topic, but I see where Superman is giving up his American citizenship. The DC comic book hero, the Man of Steel, who fought for “Truth, Justice and the American Way….” Now he’s something of a citizen of the world, or the larger universe, I guess.

(Besides, whoever saw his birth certificate? He was an illegal alien!)

Exactly.

It is also a National Security issue, but heck, nobody is looking.

The fact that gas prices are over $4.00 and oil companies are reporting record profits along with NYMEX trading firms in the energy sector enjoying spectacular profits from speculative activity in that sector proves that the financial “reform” that was supposed to have been so onerous didn’t do a goddamn thing.

did the enron loophole ever get plugged?

YES!

a real national security issue (as opposed to the fake ones used to sell wars)!

a few years ago, the big automakers that have plants in Canada were asking the Canadian government to increase spending on health care.

Here is the link on the EU investigating TBTF:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-29/goldman-sachs-jpmorgan-face-eu-antitrust-probe-of-cds-market.html

Gregg Levine’s weekly vlog is ready: Goolsbee: Lower Federal Spending Caused Slowdown in GDP

It isn’t even necessary to control the voting machines. You can’t vote to fire all your reps. Only a viable third party candidate would allow that. And given the campaign funding rules in place they would remain uncorrupted only for as long as it takes them to swear in.

There are several other sites but I lost them in the twitter feed. I promise they are there and somebody in other countries is still mad as hell about being taken and bringing down the world.

edit

Agreed.

But your narratives and others like them are critical to developing awareness, selise.

My concern is that “our” Government’s offical “policies” of destruction and terror are seen abroad as widely tolerated or even applauded by the American people. The reason this matters is simply that when the rest of the world realizes that it must FORCE American hegemony to cease, that little distinction will be possible through the means available to do that “stopping”.

If silence is seen as assent, then that “evidence” will indict the majority as well as the authors and the beneficiaries of current policy, adding a major unknown to the list, the growing list, of the consequences America will, inevitably, face …

Most Americans do not wish to imagine what may well be THAT part of the future. Yet, our behavoir in this world, as it is perceived to be, and as it IS, cannot be escaped or avoided by claiming ignorance or innocence.

DW

It is THE essence of national security, PP.

Another excellently framed “sound-bite”, BTW.

DW

Our media blocks out any protest or push back. I’ve been thinking that protesters should invite AJ-English to cover American causes and protests.

Agreed.

As ignorant as we are of the rest of the world’s peoples’ opinions and realities, so too are the rest of the world’s people little able to hear the truth of the best of American hearts and minds …

The Terror Curtain has been drawn … to divide understanding and compassion.

DW

IF it were true.

If silence is seen as assent…

if for no other reason than selfish concern for me and mine, this is, imo, a powerful motivation not to be silent (and one of the reasons i think anti-war demos are so very important… indeed, an action of solidarity with the oppressed).

enlightened self-interest, if compassion and empathy are deficient.

……

edit to add:

p.s. trying to develop my own awareness here… just doing in “out loud” (keyboard style)

thanks, moving upstairs….

“…enlightened self-interest”

You’ve hit a golden vein, in your sound-bites, selise.

Let ‘em rip.

Really powerful and great good stuff from your abiding wisdom to your finger-tips, these days.

;~DW

Austin Goolsbee? Wasn’t that the clown who said the 2.5% payroll tax holiday would create jobs? Austin,,,thanks for screwing us even more when the monies for SS and medicare come up a bit short..take your whiteboard and shove it!

EDS did it HUD zones. A member of their Federal Systems at the time (early 2000s) unwittingly dropped that info in my lap on a phone call.

Obama has fallen into the GOP trap. Clearly, the GOP will benefit as the economy sours. Thus, the GOP is assisting the demise of the country in order to improve their election opportunities. (See Bernanke — repug — presser.)

The converse is true: if the dems could crank up jobs, more democrats/independents would vote for Dems — just ask the former blue dogs if appeasing repugs/Wall Street works.

Obama seems to believe that making nice with Goldman Sachs (raise $1 B with help of Corzine — formerly of GS) improves his re-election chances more than hiring the jobless. The Fed Chair is a repug and the last thing he would do is improve the jobless numbers and thereby hinder repug elections.

The SCOTUS now is blatantly political: toss all the traditional analyses regarding strict scrutiny/rational basis tests — now it’s simply rule in favor of electing repugs.

Same with recent shifting around of DOD/CIA/etc heads: all but one appointment is a repug. 5 appointments, only 1 democrat. GWBush had a single dem in his cabinet. Where’s the improvement?

But will this strategy work for Obama’s re-election? Don’t think so. Just like the blue dogs, he will go down if keeps on this path of appeasement.

Also called Circling the Drain.

Jor-el is obviously Muslim. And Lois Lane being a member of the professional left, well…