The only thing Americans seem to agree on today is the historic low confidence in Congress. But remember: we elect Congress. The feeling of helplessness is well earned.
After serial asset bubbles burst, helping turn the US economy into a shell of its former self, there is nothing left for the Federal Reserve and monetary policy to do. It almost seems beyond the point to explain how the Fed and political interests substantially supported the bubbles, while the mainstream media went AWOL. There is another course-- in terms of fiscal policy. Paul Krugman has been hollering for more than two years that the failure to increase government stimulus spending now-- with the economy in such fragile shape-- is repeating the mistakes of the Great Depression: history that Ben Bernanke knows perfectly well.
But having failed to hold together even his own party and its core principles during the recent Congressional fiasco, President Obama has no leg to stand on.
A scan through the results of the recent Quinnipiac poll shows that Republicans and Democrats are divided as they ever have been. Average Americans may go down kicking and screaming at each other, surrounded by Fox News flame throwers, but it is very clear-- from the income inequality gap-- that the richest Americans have already sailed from the fray on shore while we are well and truly cooking in the heat.
So shake your head at the 14 percent of Americans, according to the August 1 CNN poll, who approve of Congress. That dismal number reflects on us. We are deluded to think we are exceptional Americans. The rest of the world knows perfectly well what happens when the politics of destruction get the bit in its teeth. I call it, reaping the whirlwind.
4 comments:
Krugman is right, once the high speed train is built all of our economic woos will be solved.
Now, I am off to put another $5K on my credit card to improve my personal economic condition.
4 simple steps for a better economy (& why it won't happen)from The New Republic's Jon Cohen:
We should be extending unemployment insurance, renewing the payroll tax holiday, and financing public works with an infrastructure bank. We should also be writing a big, fat check to the states. Talking heads like to say that government can’t create jobs but that is nonsense. It can create them and it can destroy them. Lately state and local government have been doing the latter: This month’s jobs number would be a lot higher if payrolls for state and local governments hadn’t shrunk by 37,000.
Congressional Democrats have championed these ideas, or versions of them, ever since the downturn began. So has Obama, although it’s fair to ask whether the administration could be promoting the ideas more fervently and relentlessly. But the primary obstacle here is the Republican Party, whose members continue to insist that the problem with the economy is too much spending.
Anon
You are absolutely right. This is so well said and written. Thank You.
A slightly different take:
http://southdadematters.com/2011/08/05/an-ignominious-first/
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