In the United States, the only honest fiscal solution is to end the Bush tax cuts, end foreign military adventurism, stop pretending that it’s necessary to spend more on military and ostensible national security hardware than the rest of the world combined, and end all forms of corporate subsidies. If a corporation cannot survive on its own it deserves to die. If a corporation’s survival serves some vital social or security need and it cannot survive on its own, then it should be socialized rather than publicly subsidized. After all, public subsidies to privately held corporations already are a form of socialism, it’s just that much of the money goes into private pockets rather than serving the public good.
That we are even discussing economic austerity is itself proof that the political systems of the developed world are but servants to private industry. We know how the world dug itself out of the Great Depression, and it wasn’t economic austerity. It was deficit spending. It was Keynesian economics. It was a widespread series of policies that laid the foundation for true economic growth. From the ground up.
>Sen. Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio said took to the Senate floor the day after to predict that “we will see $1.50 gas this spring, and maybe before. And it is just a matter of time until the oil companies and their associates, the OPEC nations, will be driving gasoline pump prices up to $2 a gallon.” Sen. Don Riegle of Michigan said that “It will hurt our people within a matter of days.” Sen. Dale Bumpers of Arkansas had previously predicted that “without rationing, gasoline will soon go to $3 a gallon,” and added that “Decontrol is designed to see how much we can squeeze out of the American people before they take to the streets.” Maine’s Sen. George Mitchell said “Every citizen and every family will find their living standards reduced by this decision.” Democratic Congressman Ed Markey said “I believe that decontrol as a cure will prove to be worse than the disease of oil addiction.” A Naderite advocacy group predicted that oil prices might go as high as $870 a barrel “under assumptions which many experts believe are realistic.” Instead oil prices started falling almost immediately; gasoline pump prices fell from an average high of $1.41 in February 1981 to a national average of 89 cents a gallon in the spring of 1986.
From PowerLine. I don’t think we should be listening to liberals for economic advice. I think they are still calling for nationalization of the oil industry and price controls as the solutions. Let’s see how Argentina ends up.
“How convenient it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to make or find a reason for whatever one has a mind to do.”
Benjamin Franklin
Surely we can print enough money so that everyone can be rich.
It’s not austerity, it’s survival.
What, you imagine somehow that the Bernanke has abandoned the one true economics of Keynes and that his apostasy it the cause of all our economic woes?
Or is it like the dope fiend who needs a bigger and bigger fix, an economy requires more and more central planning to stay out of the DTs?
In order to understand the true value of Keynesian Economics, you need to watch “The Money Masters”. That way at least, you’ll understand who gets the benefit.
(Hint: Not you.)