underpaidgenius:

The Real Story - Paul Krugman

The actual lessons of 2009-2010, then, are that scare stories about stimulus are wrong, and that stimulus works when it is applied. But it wasn’t applied on a sufficient scale. And we need another round.

But it won’t happen. President Obama is incapable of a sustained fight against the GOP and his own conservatives, and it’s unclear where his heart is on this matter anyway.

Obama is facing exactly what any moderate faces today: the enmity of the hysterically Tea Partyish GOP and the anger of the disaffected liberals at the far left of the Democratic party.

Oh, I wish we could have a multiparty system, where at least there would be a hope of coalition politics instead of a two-party Mexican standoff.

Stowe Boyd (aka UnderpaidGenius) is right—and Krugman is oversimplifying, I think. And in a very scary, very subtle way, this is another example of the Absurd Disconnect.  Krugman, and so many others, is/are ignoring the reality of our changing world.  Not that I blame them.  Over the past 100 years we’ve see not just a dramatic change in the way our economy works, but we’ve seen a dramatic rise in the rate of that change. 

And our culture hasn’t been able to keep up.

Most of us are focused on fixing the system we already have—as though it’s not completely and utterly outmoded.  People like Krugman aren’t facing the obvious-if-you-look reality that capitalism is broken.  You can no longer define things through the basic “supply and demand” concept since the Internet changes so very much about how commerce is done.

Meanwhile, people like myself, Boyd and others, call for brand new ideas.  This is what I think is missing from what we’re hearing from everyone in the establishment—even the more outspoken people like Krugman who think the old ways are worth saving.

I’m not sure what the new system should look like, but one thing is clear—our current system is a mess and it’s not getting any better.  This isn’t about applying the stimulus—this is about building a new economy from scratch.

After all, how do we “stimulate” an economy that has had its foundation turned to sand?

Outsourcing has transformed our country into a land of consumers, not producers. The only thing we make here are ideas and, thanks to the Internet, those are cheap or free.  Thanks to this inability to create value, the value of our dollar is dropping through the floor.  The Fed is practically giving money away because we’re all subconsciously reacting to this new world and not wanting to take on any debt.

We’re at this point where the scam that was the old system is falling apart.  Finally, the disconnect between what we are told (“Don’t spend beyond your means.”) and what our economy systemically requires (lots and lots of people debt-chained into the system) is getting so wide as to not be reconcilable by the participants (us).

So, now I find myself looking at all of these talking heads telling me that we’re going to recover.  Recover what?  The system that we’ve just driven into the ground?

Time for a new car.

Maybe a hybrid—or how about one that runs on solar? :)

(And by invoking environmental concepts, I’m suggesting the new economy be based around benefiting all, not just people who want to be rich and those who already are.)

underpaidgenius:

Crime and punishment in America: Rough justice | The Economist

sunsmudge:

“America is different from the rest of the world in lots of ways, many of them good. One of the bad ones is its willingness to lock up its citizens (see our briefing). One American adult in 100 festers behind bars (with the rate rising to one in nine for young black men). Its imprisoned population, at 2.3m, exceeds that of 15 of its states. No other rich country is nearly as punitive as the Land of the Free. The rate of incarceration is a fifth of America’s level in Britain, a ninth in Germany and a twelfth in Japan.”

We can only hope that the economic realities of the economy will lead to a sharp decrease, once states determine they have no money to incarcerate.

This is pretty messed up when you think about it—1 in 100? Isn’t that another way of saying 1% of America is in prison?  That’s out of control, in my opinion.  However, it puts unemployment in perspective—isn’t unemployment hovering somewhere around 10%?  So, essentially, 11% of America is not contributing to society economically.  That’s 11% of 300 million people.  Roughly 3 million people are essentially useless in the eyes of the economy and the government. 

But that doesn’t seem to bother the government at all.  Check out this next bit also from underpaidgenius:

Paul Krugman, Defining Prosperity Down

I’m starting to have a sick feeling about prospects for American workers — but not, or not entirely, for the reasons you might think.

Yes, growth is slowing, and the odds are that unemployment will rise, not fall, in the months ahead. That’s bad. But what’s worse is the growing evidence that our governing elite just doesn’t care — that a once-unthinkable level of economic distress is in the process of becoming the new normal.

And I worry that those in power, rather than taking responsibility for job creation, will soon declare that high unemployment is “structural,” a permanent part of the economic landscape — and that by condemning large numbers of Americans to long-term joblessness, they’ll turn that excuse into dismal reality.

But isn’t that already what’s happened?

Seems to me the only thing that’s missing from seeing Krugman’s equation come true is honest leadership from politicians and business people willing to state the facts about what is really happening.  This is the core of the Neo-Con belief system—lie to use about a threat to keep us afraid and in line. A healthy prison population, a couple wars and an economy built on sand are perfect tools to keep most of us quaking in our boots.  Of course, if you’re rich, none of the bad stuff really touches you, so who cares if you tell a few lies?

In the end, whether they’re lying to us or not is irrelevant since the results are the same.  Of course, in the second UnderpaidGenius.com post I quote from above, blogger, Stowe Boyd asks when the protests start. 

I answer: they won’t ever start.  That’s what the lies are for.

I’m going to have to write more on this…

Stowe Boyd, the guy behind Underpaidgenius.com recently posted something about a cat fight between economy-heads, David Brooks and Paul Krugman—however, the most important thing that was mentioned in the post was Boyd’s own commentary:

Only people like Krugman are telling us what’s actually going on: 75% of the Federal budget is going to war, social security and health care entitlements, and financing our debt.

What we should be doing is nationalizing health care and shutting down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and continued stimulus to get the economy running on all cylinders again. Not ‘austerity now’ baloney.

I’m sure that 75% number isn’t exact, but if you are paying attention to what the USG spends its/our money on, you know it’s a very safe estimate. 

Essentially, what’s going on here is that, America is falling apart and the USG doesn’t want to practice the tough love that is clearly required to force the big corporations to actually give a crap about the folks that got them where they are today (us).

A child can understand the basics of how our economy works (if the child would be trusted with the truth, anyway).  The reality is simple: a strong economy means a strong dollar.  This means we must add value to the dollar by creating more inside the US.  This starts with jobs at companies that make stuff here or provide services here.

It’s really that simple.  What’s slowing us down? Companies that want to continue to make more with less.  It’s all about TheGreed at this point…