Saturday, September 10, 2011

Double Dip or Is the Remission Over?

Double Dip is the new question. And Recession is the term applied to a depression different than the Great one; although, upon close analysis, our Great Recession has far more characterics of a Depression than the less threatening word.

Entitlement is another word that is a misnomer, because we pay for social security, medicare - and medicaid has the ability to take all of our assets after a 2 or 4 year stint in a nursing home on the way to an end that would be considered inhumane treatment for a pet.

So we do not use language correctly to elicit thought, because it is used as propoganda to shape thought.  And the blame for this is a broken political system stemming from Republicans being against making sense no matter what, a faltering public educational process and an individual lack of responsiblity to know more and listen for meaning rather than salavate from  ringing bells or electric shock. As well as Republicans and Democrats more concerned with "Special Interests" than our interests!!

David Brooks of the New York Times told us today that most economists believe we should combine near term stimulus with long term austerity. These are the same economists that did not speak out against the Free Market self corrects based on the Rational Market Theory, which is the notion that markets which are nothing but a bunch of people buying stuff are rational - because Man is rational? And almost all of these economists (certainly not Krugman) have still not spoken out against the Free Market Myth as it still exists politically and on Wall Street.

What if our Great Recession, a term used to separate our current state of malaise from all past recessions, is similar to a stage 2 or 3 melanoma, and the concern about double dipping is actually a lack of recognition that the remission is over.

Over because we still have not applied the tools available to actually treat it?

There is abundant empirical evidence from how the Great Depression was finally oblated - and the regulations necessary to curb greed have been destroyed and there is no talk of restoring the barriers.

In 2009 Obama proposed a 2nd stimulus, based on economics that worked in the aftermath of 1929. And everyone should know that today's Republicans, led by leading Tea Party brilliant laissez-faire thinkers, have been against anything that makes sense since Bush. So let's remember  - that God forbid Republicans to increase taxes on incomes above $500,000 or to stop billions of dollars for oil companies that have the largest profits in the world, which are now at record levels!

The plan proposed by Obama was certainly limited by what the Republicans would not do. Therefore to acheive some immediate relief for so many who suffer without jobs and hope, a limited (but bolder than anticipated) plan was vehemantly proposed.

And now the concern for a "Double Dip" is more than a concern - it is a probability because cancer does not just go away. Not that the creationists have reason to believe in medication. Let's join together to speak in tongue, maybe that will work.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

WHERE HAS THE PUBLIC GOOD GONE?

Republicans have declared war on the United States Government, and campaign against the government as the enemy. Today all the Republicans who have declared they are running for the presidency agree that the new financial regulations need to be removed; that the modicum of health "reform" must be overturned; social security should be privatized; and that corporate taxes should be lowered and taxes on the uber riche should not be raised.

The financial reform did not happen; the health reform stopped far short of what it ought to be; if social security  (which is not an entitlement because we pay for it out of our income) had been privatized it would have been ravaged by the Wall Street meltdown; corporate taxes as a percentage of GNP are at the lowest level since 1947 - and it is self evident that the Financial Darwinists must pay a fairer share of taxes!

Americans need to wake up and get involved with searching for and identifying the fact of Financial Darwinism - which means the survival of the richest.

Our media needs to stop providing a platform for people who want to argue the world is flat, and start asking pointedly tough questions following up all the ludicrous stuff that the self interested spout off on their news shows. Too much talk about the contest and not much on whether a runner can or should run the country. Politics might be fun for the media to analyze ad nauseum, but it has been a lethal passtime at the expense of our society.

 The media needs to stop being an enabler and remember it is supposed to objectively promote the creation of objective and informed public opinion. And this does not happen when an economist supports more deregulation, like this morning on Meet the Press! Both sides is the Fox Views equation of R. Murdock - not the obligation of The Fourth Estate!

Walter  Cronkite did not come back from Viet Nam to tell  his fellow Americans how wrong the war was, and then have a distorted defense of the war from a self interested general trying to salvage his job and reputation on the CBS evening news to provide balance. The networks are no longer independant enough to allow blunt political and economic truths on network evening news. NBC does allow it on cable, so deserves credit.

So, although Jefferson said the role of government is to protect the public - all the right wing nuts who are so concerned about the US Constitution  do not care what the guy thought who wrote it! And they  talk about Reagan like he did not increase the size of government as if he walked on water and is still as much alive as Elvis. Ask his son, who is an extremely objective and vehement about the truth commentator.

Regulations are to protect the public good, and our economy and society have gone down the tubes of all the deregulation.