Krugman's right about the power of ideas. It was the idea of deregulation that destroyed our recent prosperity. Puritans like to point a moral finger at the vice of "greed" but the enabling ideas were actually based on fast-talking presentations about a "free economy" and "deregulation."
Turtle
· 12 months ago
And in the name of claiming our own, John Maynard Keynes was also openly gay (or bisexual, as he married a woman when he was fortysomething).
SCLiberal
· 12 months ago
There is such a thing as a "free lunch". The bank CEOs have just proven that.
triple7s
· 12 months ago
Also, try telling your CHILDREN that CRIME DOES NOT PAY.
TomJoad
· 12 months ago
Even though it seems to be "life and death" or at the very least "comfort or hardship" it is very important to not take it all too seriously.
I love Krugman. He is great. Peter Schiff also. The reaffirm what I thought, and was put down for in the last few years, thinking that we need to MAKE something that we can SELL to people to be prosperous. Just as routinely executing felons makes society harder, so has the "credit card from China" theocracy given people in the US the idea that it "works" to just put anything you want on a credit card.
I believe a true revolution is coming. Constant incrementing of buying cannot sustain us. We need to balance out. We need to acheive balance. It isn't funny to read bumper stickers that say "shop til you drop" and that whole shebang. The time has come for a little balance and also a little sense.
The main thing, wealth hasn't changed, just abstracts that we focus way too much on like money. We have the same amount of oil we did, the same resources, the same ability to produce goods. When "goods" get out of hand, so one is paying a days wages for a cell-phone cover, things are out of balance. When we wage two pluss wars and don't include them in the budget it is exactly the same as family trying to make a budget but leaving out that the daughter charges a thousand a month on her card. It is unsustainable.
Wall street doesn't care about common sense until they HAVE TO. Wall street reacts irrationally. We cannot base a policy on irrational thinking....we need to get it inline with reality. Reality is, well....you tell me.
But it defiinately includes seeing the real worth of things. Wall street should (and maybe was, I don't know) have been smart, in that they did their homework and found companies that SHOULD succeed and invested in them, but wall street has become more and more like it is in China, a crap shoot. It has nothing at all to do with realitty. The ripples from the greedheads that masterminded the sub-prime idiocy will end up over adjusting. Suddenly companies that have a solid profit will be undervalued.
This is the key to surviving this meltdown I think. To keep your head. To be balanced. We were in lala land economically and it was the "realistic" republicans that helped put us there. They used to be so solid and rational, but now are like the audience in "Peter Pan" having to believe in tinkerbell to help her exist. It's all bullshit. Oil companies know this. They don't WANT to drill (I still can't figure out why they want to pretend drilling offshore is the answer, but I wil figure it out, or someone here can tell me) because they already have thousands of acres given to them to try and they don't do it. For one thing, we haven't built an oil refinery in 30+ years! for another, the oil in the ground it REAL wealth, but IF they take it out of the ground, it has a definite worth, and that is in DOLLARS, and so they prefer to keep it in the ground where it can wait....til the price is right.
The wealth is there, and though we all have lost tons of "worth", in the stock markets, and it is going to get worse, all things are relative....the money is going to be worth more too. Some will be ruined, some will do okay and some will benefit.
It's like in the game Monopoly. The endgame is pretty boring, we all know that any move (for the losers) is a losing move...inevitable. And it only goes one way. We need a "reset", to start over...but it'll never happen.
Done rambling....
MaudGonne
· 12 months ago
How about Madonna's ideas???
documentary, ''I Am Because We Are.'' With an audience thus far limited to isolated theater screenings, it will be screened for everyone with its TV premiere on Sundance Channel at 9 p.m. EST Monday (World AIDS Day). The feature-length film was written, produced and narrated by Madonna (directed by Nathan Rissman). It consults experts including President Bill Clinton and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the film's real power is its images, which are often dismaying but, here and there, reflect hope and a remarkable will to survive. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-TV-Madonn...
EdNSted
· 12 months ago
John,
This essay by Michael Lewis is also a essential reading for anyone interested in this topic:
What the piece makes utterly clear is that the current ecomonic crisis is NOT, contrary to what many talking heads have proclaimed, simply the downside of a "natural economic cycle".
tbhull
· 12 months ago
To the extent those use to having stand to lose and look to employ the government to preserve theirs, liberty must be highest on the list of needs and aspirations.
sherifffruitfly
· 12 months ago
Although I can't say that one's new to me, i do LOVE it when I run across a new word! So exciting!
Reason0Politics1
· 12 months ago
The truth is, Obama was shoehorned into the White House because the ruling elite saw that the country was slipping into a consumer-led depression. They needed a bright new face to restore confidence and spark optimism during the tough times ahead. But now that he's been elected, they've surrounded him with the very men who, to great extent, created the present crisis. Lawrence Summers pushed for the repeal of the laws which prevented commercial banks from merging with the Wall Street casinos and he also helped to deregulate derivatives trading which now threatens to bring down the entire financial system if a major player, like Citigroup, goes under.
Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers were central figures in the bubble-driven growth and deregulation mania of the last decade. Their influence factored heavily into the speculation that was brought on by low interest rates, easy credit and massive leverage; the lethal combo that created the present crisis. Their elevation to the top positions in the administration --along with Paul Volcker--proves that the Obama presidency is just more political fakery; a charming and charismatic figurehead placed in front of the executive podium to conceal the machinations of deeply-entrenched interests who are busy rebuilding the trickle-down system from the ground up. There's nothing new here, and certainly nothing progressive. The much-celebrated "Dream Team" is an amalgam of Rubin-clones who used Obama as a land-bridge to the White House to strengthen the status quo and get on with the task of shifting the nation's wealth to Wall Street's economic royalists. - Mike Whitney
SociologistTina
· 12 months ago
Phenomenal post. I agree with Krugman, and what he's saying about ideas is pretty inspiring.
All Comments
http://www.europac.net/
I love Krugman. He is great. Peter Schiff also. The reaffirm what I thought, and was put down for in the last few years, thinking that we need to MAKE something that we can SELL to people to be prosperous. Just as routinely executing felons makes society harder, so has the "credit card from China" theocracy given people in the US the idea that it "works" to just put anything you want on a credit card.
I believe a true revolution is coming. Constant incrementing of buying cannot sustain us. We need to balance out. We need to acheive balance. It isn't funny to read bumper stickers that say "shop til you drop" and that whole shebang. The time has come for a little balance and also a little sense.
The main thing, wealth hasn't changed, just abstracts that we focus way too much on like money. We have the same amount of oil we did, the same resources, the same ability to produce goods. When "goods" get out of hand, so one is paying a days wages for a cell-phone cover, things are out of balance. When we wage two pluss wars and don't include them in the budget it is exactly the same as family trying to make a budget but leaving out that the daughter charges a thousand a month on her card. It is unsustainable.
Wall street doesn't care about common sense until they HAVE TO. Wall street reacts irrationally. We cannot base a policy on irrational thinking....we need to get it inline with reality. Reality is, well....you tell me.
But it defiinately includes seeing the real worth of things. Wall street should (and maybe was, I don't know) have been smart, in that they did their homework and found companies that SHOULD succeed and invested in them, but wall street has become more and more like it is in China, a crap shoot. It has nothing at all to do with realitty. The ripples from the greedheads that masterminded the sub-prime idiocy will end up over adjusting. Suddenly companies that have a solid profit will be undervalued.
This is the key to surviving this meltdown I think. To keep your head. To be balanced. We were in lala land economically and it was the "realistic" republicans that helped put us there. They used to be so solid and rational, but now are like the audience in "Peter Pan" having to believe in tinkerbell to help her exist.
It's all bullshit. Oil companies know this. They don't WANT to drill (I still can't figure out why they want to pretend drilling offshore is the answer, but I wil figure it out, or someone here can tell me) because they already have thousands of acres given to them to try and they don't do it. For one thing, we haven't built an oil refinery in 30+ years! for another, the oil in the ground it REAL wealth, but IF they take it out of the ground, it has a definite worth, and that is in DOLLARS, and so they prefer to keep it in the ground where it can wait....til the price is right.
The wealth is there, and though we all have lost tons of "worth", in the stock markets, and it is going to get worse, all things are relative....the money is going to be worth more too. Some will be ruined, some will do okay and some will benefit.
It's like in the game Monopoly. The endgame is pretty boring, we all know that any move (for the losers) is a losing move...inevitable. And it only goes one way. We need a "reset", to start over...but it'll never happen.
Done rambling....
documentary, ''I Am Because We Are.'' With an audience thus far limited to isolated theater screenings, it will be screened for everyone with its TV premiere on Sundance Channel at 9 p.m. EST Monday (World AIDS Day). The feature-length film was written, produced and narrated by Madonna (directed by Nathan Rissman). It consults experts including President Bill Clinton and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the film's real power is its images, which are often dismaying but, here and there, reflect hope and a remarkable will to survive.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-TV-Madonn...
This essay by Michael Lewis is also a essential reading for anyone interested in this topic:
The End Of Wall Street's Boom
What the piece makes utterly clear is that the current ecomonic crisis is NOT, contrary to what many talking heads have proclaimed, simply the downside of a "natural economic cycle".
Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers were central figures in the bubble-driven growth and deregulation mania of the last decade. Their influence factored heavily into the speculation that was brought on by low interest rates, easy credit and massive leverage; the lethal combo that created the present crisis. Their elevation to the top positions in the administration --along with Paul Volcker--proves that the Obama presidency is just more political fakery; a charming and charismatic figurehead placed in front of the executive podium to conceal the machinations of deeply-entrenched interests who are busy rebuilding the trickle-down system from the ground up. There's nothing new here, and certainly nothing progressive. The much-celebrated "Dream Team" is an amalgam of Rubin-clones who used Obama as a land-bridge to the White House to strengthen the status quo and get on with the task of shifting the nation's wealth to Wall Street's economic royalists. - Mike Whitney
Thanks.