As The British Conservatives Mess up, So Do Ours!
In his OP-ED piece today, British Fashion Victims, Paul Krugman warns that their new conservative government's plan to slash budgets and lay off 490,000 workers will produce economic disaster there -- and elsewhere that this new fad is employed. History tells us that this has happened in the past.
In Krugman's words: "What happens now? Maybe Britain will get lucky, and something will come along to rescue the economy. But the best guess is that Britain in 2011 will look like Britain in 1931, or the United States in 1937, or Japan in 1997. That is, premature fiscal austerity will lead to a renewed economic slump. As always, those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."
Needless to say the U.S. looks to be heading in the same direction. We desperately need to allocate public monies to our dangerously deteriorating infrastructures. But both Dems and Republicans are unlikely to do this and China lurks in the background with its abused workers forced to produce at low wages and without supporting health and unemployment benefits. Costco and WalMart become our favorite buying places of cheap Chinese goods, putting Americans out of work.
Let's face it. The U.S. is in bad economic shape and will probably see worse whoever is elected in November. We, too, seem to have bought the British conservative budget fad. Where we need to put our money is not in big banks who profit from secretive hedge funds, etc., but are not lending to businesses eager to expand -- so workers are not hired by
them and the Tea Party thrives with all its lies and distortions unchallenged by our TV media -- main source of information for overworked ones who have little time to do more than watch ball games and NASCAR races.
Too many Americans are living in such fantasy worlds and we risk being known as the 20th century nation that lost its way in the 21st. Let us not forget the Bush/Cheney disasters that Obama inherited -- Iraq and a Depression threatening. And he had lousy economic advisors who halted obvious moves he should have made to extend public funds to those who needed them -- the poor and our country's infrastructures at large.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]
In Krugman's words: "What happens now? Maybe Britain will get lucky, and something will come along to rescue the economy. But the best guess is that Britain in 2011 will look like Britain in 1931, or the United States in 1937, or Japan in 1997. That is, premature fiscal austerity will lead to a renewed economic slump. As always, those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."
Needless to say the U.S. looks to be heading in the same direction. We desperately need to allocate public monies to our dangerously deteriorating infrastructures. But both Dems and Republicans are unlikely to do this and China lurks in the background with its abused workers forced to produce at low wages and without supporting health and unemployment benefits. Costco and WalMart become our favorite buying places of cheap Chinese goods, putting Americans out of work.
Let's face it. The U.S. is in bad economic shape and will probably see worse whoever is elected in November. We, too, seem to have bought the British conservative budget fad. Where we need to put our money is not in big banks who profit from secretive hedge funds, etc., but are not lending to businesses eager to expand -- so workers are not hired by
them and the Tea Party thrives with all its lies and distortions unchallenged by our TV media -- main source of information for overworked ones who have little time to do more than watch ball games and NASCAR races.
Too many Americans are living in such fantasy worlds and we risk being known as the 20th century nation that lost its way in the 21st. Let us not forget the Bush/Cheney disasters that Obama inherited -- Iraq and a Depression threatening. And he had lousy economic advisors who halted obvious moves he should have made to extend public funds to those who needed them -- the poor and our country's infrastructures at large.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]
posted by Ed Kent at 7:49 AM
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