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The Seven Deadly Deficits: What the Bush Years Really Cost Us

By Joseph Stiglitz, Mother Jones. Posted December 22, 2008.


And how President Obama can get the economy back on track.

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When President George W. Bush assumed office, most of those disgruntled about the stolen election contented themselves with this thought: Given our system of checks and balances, given the gridlock in Washington, how much damage could be done? Now we know: far more than the worst pessimists could have imagined. From the war in Iraq to the collapse of the credit markets, the financial losses are difficult to fathom. And behind those losses lie even greater missed opportunities.

Put it all together -- the money squandered on the war, the money wasted on a housing pyramid scheme that impoverished the nation and enriched a few, and the money lost because of the recession -- and the gap between what we could have produced and what we did produce will easily exceed $1.5 trillion. Think what that kind of money could have done to provide health care for the uninsured, to improve our education system, to build green technology ... The list is endless.

And the true cost of our missed opportunities is likely even greater. Consider the war: First there are the funds directly allocated to it by the government (an estimated $12 billion a month even according to the misleading accounting of the Bush administration). Much larger, as the Kennedy School's Linda Bilmes and I documented in The Three Trillion Dollar War, are the indirect costs: the salaries not earned by those wounded or killed, the economic activity displaced (from, say, spending on American hospitals to spending on Nepalese security contractors). Such social and macroeconomic factors may account for more than $2 trillion of the war's overall cost.

There is a silver lining in these clouds. If we can pull ourselves out of the malaise, if we can think more carefully and less ideologically about how to make our economy stronger and our society better, perhaps we can make progress in addressing some of our long-festering problems. As a road map for where to begin, consider the seven major shortfalls the Bush administration leaves behind.

The values deficit: One of the strengths of America is its diversity, and there has always been a diversity of views even on our fundamental principles -- innocent until proven guilty, the writ of habeas corpus, the rule of law. But (so we thought) those who disagreed with these principles were a fringe, easily ignored. We have now learned that the fringe is not so small and includes among its numbers the president and leaders of his party. And this division of values could not have come at a worse time. The realization that we may have less in common than we thought may make it difficult to solve the problems we must address together.

The climate deficit: With the help of corporate accomplices such as ExxonMobil, Bush tried to persuade Americans that global warming was fiction. It is not, and even the administration has finally admitted as much. But for eight years we did nothing, and America pollutes more than ever -- a delay that will cost us dearly.

The equality deficit: In the past, even if those at the bottom saw little or any of the gains from economic expansion, life was viewed as a fair lottery. Up-by-your-bootstraps stories are part of America's sense of identity. But today, the promise of the Horatio Alger legend rings false. Upward mobility is becoming increasingly difficult. Growing divisions in income and wealth are reinforced by a tax code that rewards those who have lucked out in the globalization sweepstakes. As that realization sinks in, it will be even harder to find common cause.


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See more stories tagged with: bush, environment, economy, obama, trade, accountability, climate, green jobs, budget deficit

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate, is a professor of economics at Columbia University.

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View:
How Can We Pay for More Social Programs ? Easy ... A Public Central Bank
Posted by: mmckinl on Dec 22, 2008 12:34 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Stiglitz ~"There are only two ways to pay for these investments: raise taxes or cut other expenditures."

WRONG ...

There is a third way. Nationalizing the banking system and using the profits to pay for the social and infrastructure investments we need.

The Federal Reserve System has been a complete failure. When not directly responsible for scandals, crises and bubbles they have jaw boned for policies that created them ... think : Alan Greenspan.

We need to replace this system with a Banking system run as a public utility whereby we the people, benefit directly from the creation of currency and the allocation of credit. As it stands now the banks garner almost all of the benefit of the leveraged interest they create. We have seen that they have abused this to the point that now we stand on the precipice of another Great Depression.

With a public central bank using a public utility model a much greater share of the profit can be made by the government while containing currency and credit creation so that it remains stable. A new Public Utility Bank can allocate currency and credit towards an economy that is both environmentally sustainable and economically just. Our current model rewards environmental degradation and thoughtless consumption based on a highest return model that accounts for neither the environment nor social responsibility labeling such concerns as externalities to their growth at any cost model.

The current banking system was developed for the expropriation of colonial wealth through slave labor. We need a new banking system designed for the 21st century that invests in people and restores our environment. A Public Central Bank can create currency and allocate credit based on sustainability and the Common Good while making a profit to offset costs.

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Government employee deficit
Posted by: Perry Logan on Dec 22, 2008 2:42 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Republicans have also created a serious deficit of qualified government employees.

Eight years of Republican hegemony have led to a massive exodus of qualified professionals from government service.

In other words, the people who keep our government running have quit in record numbers--to be replaced by incompetent Bush cronies and wingnuts with degrees from cereal boxes. Even if Obama institutes the correct policies, the current government staff may be too incompetent to carry thenm out. The Federal government has never been in worse shape.

So, in addition to his other monumental problems, Obama has to somehow lure qualified people back into government service, after eight years of incompetent governance. It remains to be seen whether the United States can survive eight years of Republican misrule.

Mr. Logan discusses The Current Problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i_vquVDPgU

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» Burrowing Posted by: brunowe
One's a Mistake, Seven is a Stratedgy
Posted by: Purple Girl on Dec 22, 2008 3:34 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
All these could be rolled up into one... A Deficit in Patriotism (Allegience).
Cheney does not need seven example to prove His Treason, he summed it up his confession quite nicely with "So"- When asked his thought about what the majority of Americans in this democray wanted in regards to getting out of Iraq.
W also need no long dissertations. When faced with the reality that AQ was not in Iraq BEFORE we got there, thus it was not them who choose Iraq as the Battlefield.. He responded "So What". Admitting we were deceived into an Illegitimate War Under false pretenses.
Those are not Response of Public Servants in a Democracy, Those are the responses and Attitudes of Kings, dictators Or Traitors.
If they don't care what the Public which elected them thinks, Who's opinion do they care about? Corps, Foreign 'Investors'?

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The Ideas Expressed are Great, but
Posted by: Officer009 on Dec 22, 2008 4:42 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
as the writer notes, we are very divided. There is no indication whatever that Obama will take on the military budget. From all I've seen he seems to be ready to continue the previous policies and even increase the military budget, certainly no decrease. Furthermore, even the Democrats are no divided that enacting the tax increases, health care and other policies recommended just is not likely to happen quickly enough to prevent catastrophe.

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JGBHimself
Posted by: JGBHimself on Dec 22, 2008 4:48 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As good, and wise, as he is, his contention: "There are only TWO ways to pay for these investments", is simply flat out wrong.
What he suggests is we must "hunker down", by raising taxes and/or cutting expenditures.
What he does NOT offer is what both Kennedy and RonnieR gave U.S - growth.
Kennedy cut taxes, and we/he got growth that nobody expected. RonnieR, and Lyndon before him, used "guns" & "butter" to create growth. And, W has used guns & butter AND tax cuts AND free money to create growth.
The LAST thing good for U.S. is to hunker down.
The next to the last thing for U.S. to do is to throw good money at a wall, and assume consumers will spend their tax cuts, OR that banks will actually LOAN money, that is needed by U.S. and/or businesses.
A few years ago, we eliminated the Investment Tax Credit, and the economy collapsed. When we re-instated and expanded it, the economy took off.
Now is NOT the time to discourage or eliminate "investment" in our economy, and future.
There are targeted tax increases that we NEED to make - on excessive, unearned incomes. There are also tax credits that we NEED to make that will incentivize our economy & society.
As Kennedy & RonnieR told U.S. - we are only limited if we THINK we are.
THAT was why Obama said TO U.S.: "Yes we can."
THAT was why some - just enough? - voted for him.

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To quote your president
Posted by: sonofloud on Dec 22, 2008 6:13 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"I'll deal with the deficit later" - Barack Obama

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See through the smoke and mirrors
Posted by: tgranger on Dec 22, 2008 6:37 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A parable illustrates the smoke and mirrors which HIDE true structure of our current
financial system: Consider-
A 10 family village is operating at economic
equilibrium. Each family produces a necessary
commodity or service for the benefit of the residents. One day a stranger walks into town and notices the chicken grower hearding chickens into the shoe shop to buy his family shoes. The stranger smiles and tells each family to meet him at the oak tree in the center of town so that he can make their life "easier". And he tells them to bring a cowhide.
When they arrive he cuts out 100 circles from the cowhide, stamps them with the image of
a chicken and distributes 10 circles to each family. He then says:
"Now you have a convenient way to compensate each other for goods and services which you exchange.The only catch is I'm taking the cowhide (the source of your currency)and when I return next year I want each of you to return 11 circles to me."
The question is: If they don't have access to the cowhide, where do the other 10 circles come from?
I'll post the solution tommorrow

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Reality wins after all
Posted by: dobrzepolak63 on Dec 22, 2008 6:47 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Invoking past demigods like Kennedy and Reagan demonstrates that our vision has failed. The policies of the uni-party system now extant in the US, regardless of name, are what have resulted in this now global disaster. No demigod will ride to our rescue, no cosmic genius will devise a financial trick to pull our fat out of the fire. We either give up this insanity and change for the better, or we give up and die. Which one do you really want?

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» RE: eality wins after all Posted by: using
8 LONG YEARS and not a PEEP!
Posted by: Ottomatic on Dec 22, 2008 6:51 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Faux Media and
The Corpirates
Hailed BUSH
The Furher
Now everyone knows
The King has got NO CLOTHS!
Keep stinking that the Government, Mon-saint-co, The Turdalator, The Dope (Mobile)
Bored Again, Limpburger
FEMA or FOX is going to save you.
Sorry time to get off the couch and
Take your own life back into your grubby little hands.
Stop the Plunder.
Sink or swim?
Survive and PROSPER
START NOW!
Where-ever you and who-ever you are!
Join
The Micro Democracy Revolution
Become efficient, self reliant and self sufficient.
Mankind has been doing it for thousands of years.
GO LOCAL
GO GREEN
GO ORGANIC

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RE: Doubt
Posted by: using on Dec 22, 2008 8:32 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
dear Jess:

Do you think that obama can do it alone. Have we not trusted blindly in vain....

Aren't we responsible for understanding our best interests...our needs and what it would take to have a physically and mentally better society?

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so?
Posted by: pacto on Dec 22, 2008 7:50 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
are the citizens of the USA going to overlook the total criminal aspect of the last 8 years. The countless dead,the pillage of our economy,the total disreguard of the constitution,the war crimes. like the mindless gutless.twits we have become we will take it just to be politicaly correct. Whats next?

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» RE: so? Posted by: using
» What's next? Posted by: Cathyc
and yet
Posted by: pacto on Dec 22, 2008 7:56 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bush,cheney, and all the conspiritors,will have pensions and protection for the rest of their lives.

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Our understanding of the deficit of values desperately needs open discussion:
Posted by: using on Dec 22, 2008 8:18 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The values deficit: (from my point of view:)

It is not that the fringe are so large a group ...ex..think playdough...the in-group is a small piece of playdough that is being used to pick up the pieces that were scattered around the table and floor while the children were gleefully busy playing. So, one takes that little piece and starts to place it over the tiny pieces (too small to grab individually) and gather them together.

As Orwell clearly pointed out...they (the tiny ones) do not belong to the innie elietniks, they are just being sold a piece of truth (often based in fear) that makes them believe that they are working for the ocmmon good or their own best interests (like the Iraqi war) and they grab that restructured reality and place their energy at the disposal of the fringe group and its leadership.
Selling ideas is how people in the past have created a cohesive society. And it is sustained because the elietists have money and power and they use it to buy the people who sell and bargain for their cause (Orwell's Squealer if i remember correctedly from yesteryear) advertising salesmen (ex some think that the Clintons belongs to that group).

The time has come to recreate ourselves to a higher level...or commit hari cari by continuing the various practices we have all come to half believe is proof of our advanced society.

AND WE NEED TO START WITH OUR VALUE SYSTEM AND OUR BELEIFS.....(ofcause when people do not have their basic needs fulfilled they are incapable to thinking or working for a higher good, conversely....they are capable of doing great damage..riots, revolutions that leads to new leaders that have rarely created a higher functioning society, no matter what their words bespoke, just a change in leadership.

Some of our selfish, short sighted leaders, who are breathing air so thin they do not realize that they too are a just flesh and bone..and even with better health care and insurance...can die from cancers (etc) caused by ...(you pick your favorite culprit oil, water, gas, nuclear etc)

Oh and by the way.......did you not read about the German company who received their global contracts through bribery and until late 1990's it was considered useful money expenditure in German law. Funny I thought that that was immoral, illegal, unfair, mafioso way of doing business..but apparently it is common and accepted in the right circles and its methods are so lacking in transparency that it is hard for us to extract truth from the curtain of darkness.

I believe it is quite evident that the Financal Industry is just the "poster child" for stupidity, lack of forsight and blatant thievery of our global economy.

Summation: Our way of living, our businesses, thinking process desperately needs overhauling if we are to survive and we need to open up a discussion of how that can be achieved so we can work towards a common good that most of us seem to believe is possible and want....but are powerless alone to make it happen.

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We are divided................
Posted by: Spiritgirl on Dec 22, 2008 8:45 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As the author points out we are divided, not just between red and blue, but between republican and democrat. What needs to happen as you suggest is a cutting of military programs that do not work, also a cutting of the agriculture program subsidies to big agri-business!

W. didn't force out good public servants from government alone, under Reagan many started to leave, only to be replaced with incompetent ideologues! While those numbers have grown exponentially under W., there appears to be a willingness of people that are willing to return to public service since the next President-elect was chosen. Hopefully we will see a return to public service of competent people that stay!

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Either Obama's gonna fulfill his change promise or act like the "Buddy Bears" of Garfield & Friends.
Posted by: maxpayne on Dec 22, 2008 9:18 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Let's see how many of these 7 deadly deficits Obama can get rid of. I'm already keeping my fingers crossed that he won't even touch them with a 1000 ft pole let alone tackle them.

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There is a source of taxation
Posted by: ReallyBearish on Dec 22, 2008 9:44 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Tax the churches, tax their businesses, tax their property. Time to end the subsidies for their political crap.

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seakat
Posted by: Kathy-B on Dec 22, 2008 10:08 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Amen!

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continue on track
Posted by: grkjr on Dec 22, 2008 10:49 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
after so many years you would think that we would get the picture... there is no difference between the parties except in the verbage which they spew...well i should backup a little.. there are differences but they are so small as to make little difference in the direction this country has been going for the last 30 or so years. both want free trade, usa power to be unchallenged and thus our will be done, to further the subsidy of corp america on the backs of the middle class, welfare to the very rich, and expect the poor to pull themselves up without assistance, to conclude anything else after so many years and the facts of just how the federal budget is allocated is truly insane. why is it that some beleive the words of obama while ignoring his votes can only be explained by the "hope" disease that permeates our souls.. words of hope as versus the action our leaders take, seems to be the only explanation for a return to congress the same people year after year..though they vote against our interests and our will.... from bailout of wall street to killing off the unions, we are indeed in denial and will most certainly pay the consequences of our "hope" mentality for years to come. Why else do we vote that way?? what must be done, how low do we need to fall before we get that "action speaks louder than words" does it not shine through that when obama turns 180 degrees on almost every single progressive issue from tele com to bail out, from end the war to send more troops elsewhere, from crying about too much presidential power to given bush more.. the list is endless;;;;; but he says "yes we can" oh boy..

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The problem in a nutshell:
Posted by: Hans B on Dec 22, 2008 10:49 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"With so much money spent on weapons that don't work against enemies that don't exist..."

Well said! And I believe that if more money had been available, it too would have been spent on weapons that don't work against enemies that don't exist. Military expenditure in the US has become so nonsensical, only one rule seems to apply: spend the maximum that can be borrowed, and don't ask uncomfortable questions about what for.

Ironically, the two wars the US easily won in the last hundred years (WW I and II) did not need massive pre-existing militaries: those were built on the spot, when the need arose. By contrast wars started with overwhelming force were lost: Vietnam, Iraq, soon Afghanistan. In other words, huge military budgets in peacetime only lead to bad decisions and lost wars. Whereas a virtually demilitarized US wins every time (aided, it is true, by the defense offered by two oceans).

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Let's do something really fantastic!!!!!!
Posted by: jeffrey7 on Dec 22, 2008 10:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Go to the State's tax rolls and find every homeowner,whose had their home for five years or longer,never missing a payment,and make their mortgage payments marked 'PAID IN FULL'.

Then you go after the idiot ARM loans folks got crammed down their throats nad make them conventional, 2% intrest 20 year loans.

Order a hold on all foreclosures. Then make real debt forgiveness for the 52% that live on less then $32,000 a year. Then you might have the support of the citizen's.

If you're serious about jumpstarting the economy,then you'd better jumpstart the economy of the people Wall Street ground into the dirt to become so rich,and stupid, themselves.

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Sustainable Growth-isn't that an oxymoron?
Posted by: leemiller38 on Dec 22, 2008 10:59 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Stieglitz states: "Such expenditures stimulate the economy while providing the foundation for long-term sustainable growth."

Since we live on a finite planet and resources are not only finite, but greatly diminished at this point in time, how is it that we can create long-term sustainable growth? It appears we need a new economic model that recycles, rewards reductions in population and conservatively uses finite resources so that civilization can last a little longer than under the current growth model which is heading for or may be close to catastrophic failure.
Economics is the extractive part of an ecological model, so economists need to learn more about how nature works and how humans fit in. Maybe a little late for them and for all of us. One thing is for sure there are too many people making too many demands on a small planet.

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bush regime succeeded
Posted by: wleming on Dec 22, 2008 11:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The stated neo con Bushite aim was to "kill the beast." For more on this see the lamentable heritage foundation website. They strove to kill Federal projects which helped people.. and they were successful. Fed govt. doesn't work: thats the way they want it. Sorry, folks- you elected the very people who did you dirt.

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confusion will be our epitaph
Posted by: samosamo on Dec 22, 2008 11:55 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It must be considered that the neocon think tanks are where the culmination of the disaster we are in the middle of right now began, oh, say in the early 1970s. That was at least 30 years of planning, plotting and scheming to gain power in all 3 branches of government and to increase and produce unimaginable wealth for the few and a lot of wannabes of wealth. They had milton friedman's repressive economics, blue prints in Orwell's '1984', Huxley's 'Brave New World', an incredible willing military that would further the imperial agenda of the grand larceny that was being cooked up, the msm subverted to the use of disinformation or no information to help cover what was real and what was not and coming up with idea of using the state of florida of which the president's brother, jeb, was preped for the supreme court to decide or should I say appoint w as president thus giving the republicans power in the white house and congress and enabling w to appoint 2 members to the supreme court to further or maintain the neocon agendas and an event to sway the people to accept any actions, including the loss of our constitutional protections to even further the whole thing along for those few that benefitted at the expense of the taxpayers. And for the main medium for bringing this all to fruition was and still is 'confusion'. Confusion that the msm's 4 or 5 conservative owners are all so ready to help create with a thoroughly prepped vegged out, tv, doped public. I must say it is a masterful plan and has worked for the few it is meant to enrich or make rich. I just hope that the undiscernable difference of a republican and a democrat will not interfere with the cutting through all the confusion to come up with plan to restore our government and economy and hold those responsible for this disaster accountable for their actions, it would be a serious mistake not to.

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Something so precious!
Posted by: bobtr900 on Dec 22, 2008 2:10 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bush-Cheney, the Bush Crime Family, the Republican party, the Cons, the Neocons and the Theocons have stolen something so precious and it may never be restored to our nation. They have stolen and stripped us of our National Conscience.

Possibly it will never be restored. They have taken us down to their level of depravity.

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printing madness
Posted by: edgar1 on Dec 22, 2008 2:58 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
the federal reserve will do us in with its mad printing of money without limitation. Massive inflation follows. Then utter lack of confidence in government. The road to fascism has been paved.

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» RE: printing madness Posted by: samosamo
The key to the future...
Posted by: global_commoner on Dec 22, 2008 4:58 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is something than many leaders have almost come close to saying, but stopped short of...a word that would change everything for the better...an act that would set into motion a future brighter than any of us could imagine at this moment.

And a World Teacher is here, ready to emerge into the public, to introduce us to this magical concept which all nations can be a part of.

The word? The act? The key?

Sharing.

Look for this teacher to appear soon, with a bright star in the sky during day and night.

www.WakeUpMankind.org

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» RE: The key to the future... Posted by: walldodger1969
More deficits -
Posted by: PaulK on Dec 22, 2008 5:58 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The infrastructure deficit: our bridges are falling down and we have little transit.

The education deficit: we have a dumbed down population now.

The fitness deficit: our workers are dying of heart attacks and cancer. Other countries aren't doing this.

The purity deficit: We have classrooms full of messed-up kids because our houses are full of lead, pesticides are on the lawn, ...

The limb deficit: happens with modern wars. Many soldiers' brains are messed too from concussions, and then there's Gulf War Syndrome.

The freedom deficit: We have millions of guys in the slammer earning nothing and costing $40k/year. Other countries work correctly.

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Lest we forget!
Posted by: Jersey Devil on Dec 22, 2008 7:45 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It is important that the Republican mass rape of American values, pride, honor, and wealth never be forgotten. Our cry in the future should be "Remember George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their cronies screwed America!" Never forget what the last eight years did to the middle class. Never forget their love of wealth and loathing of work. The Republican Party represents class warfare by the rich. Republicans are no longer fit to lead and we won't follow them, so they should get out of our way on returning America to its former glory.

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Who Pushed Clinton To Repeal Glass-Stegal
Posted by: tgolferman on Dec 22, 2008 10:26 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Mr. Stiglitz, you were on the inside. Who were the powers that pushed the Clinton Administration to repeal Glass Stegal? Did you oppose the repeal?

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no new cures from Stiglitz
Posted by: jon B on Dec 23, 2008 12:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I certainly can agree with Stiglitz on the bloated military expenditures. But he speaks nothing of ending war which elevates those expenditures. But the rest of his post is nothing new under the sun.

He speaks of investing in America, stimulus style. We have NOTHING to invest in or with. America is in debt up to its' ears in every nook and cranny of its' economy. Whether it is record setting personal debt, cities and states going broke, corporations and business debt, and of course our careening upward national debt, that just recently flew past $10 trillion (which is double what Bush entered office with)...our nation is a debtor nation in every aspect. Oh, and even charities are in trouble, as the Madoff scam proved to swindle so many of them.

Hunkering down is about all we can do, we can't afford to do anything else. I could agree with targeted tax increases and incentives for the poor and middle class, maybe a bit of infrastructure improvements, but these ideas are only trying to alleviate the symptoms and have nothing to do with curing the disease of stupidity, greed and corruption that became so prevalent under the extra-free market of Bush (and to an extent Clinton via Reagan...an escalation of an ideology doomed to finally fail).

Hunkering down is what people do that lose their jobs, their 401K plans, their homes. Hunkering down is what companies do on the verge of bankruptcy (unless they get a government bailout). Hunkering down is what cities and states do when faced with falling revenues. And hunkering down is what the federal government should be doing instead of throwing bad money after bad money on Wall Street. We really are in a spot where no answers are actually the best answer.

Let the disease run its' course and hopefully we will come out of it with our nation's life still intact. All I see from Stiglitz and economic "experts" are experimental therapies that probably will cause the disease to be worse because of the attempted cures.

Keynsian stimulus packages aren't going to work this time, if they ever really did. The Great Depression and today have similarities (such as Wall Street flim flamming and a real estate meltdown, the swampland in Florida joke came from that era) but the differences are more striking.

Then we led the world in manufacturing and oil production, not today. Then we were a creditor nation and had a trade surplus, not today. And then our federal government wasn't sporting a massive debt and we were on a gold standard with gold brimming in bank vaults and Fort Knox. What most people never mention about Keynes deficit spending theory was that he recommended that the deficit must be paid back after a recovery began. We've increased the deficit BEFORE we are trying the recovery. We are printing money as fast as the printers can run.

We are heading into a deflationary period and then the hyper-inflation will smack us in the face. There is no government Houdini to change this scenario, because we've already set the chain of events into motion. The only thing that might make us feel any better about it all is if we prosecute the Wall Street scam artists to the full extent and rename that road Ponzi Avenue as a warning for future generations. We could also vote out (or jail) all of our corrupt Congess, particularly anyone serving on finance and appropriation committees, but that's another long story.

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» RE: no new cures from Stiglitz Posted by: JSquercia
» tariffs Posted by: jon B
The two wars that the US won?
Posted by: shipmate on Dec 23, 2008 6:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The US was johnny come lately in both cases and had basically the whole world with them. To call the victories American is a bit far fetched, dont you think? Otherwise your point about military spending is well taken. And going it alone the US lost again and again all to the detriment of its people.

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