Public spending is under assault from the United States to Europe in the name of fighting deficits. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman argues in his new book, “End This Depression Now!”, that the hysteria over the deficit will constrain an economic recovery in a time of high unemployment and stagnating wages. “The economics is really easy,” says Krugman, “If we were to spend more money at the government level, rehire the school teachers, firefighters, police officers who have been laid off in the last several years because of cutbacks, we would be a long way back toward full employment. … Right now there’s just not enough spending. We need the government to step in and provide the demand we need … We’ve had austerity in the face of a recession in a way that we’ve never had before since the 1930s. The results are clear — it is disastrous.” Krugman writes about the economy as a columnist for the New York Times and is a Professor of Economics at Princeton University.
by Downtowner, posted on Friday, August 5th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
So this morning’s job report was better than expected, with the economy adding 117,000 jobs. So that’s good, right? Well, not really. More like mediocre. Among other things, we get to write off people who are so discouraged they just stopped looking, meaning there were actually less people working in July than in June. So that’s the mediocre.
The Bad is the downgrading of the country’s credit rating, courtesy of S&P. As a coworker of mine noted last week, when this was only a possibility, “If you’ve seen the movie Inside Job you’d kind of have to take any rating coming out of S&P with a grain of salt – okay maybe a truckload of salt – becuase how did those people put it when they were in the Congressional hearings? They said something like ‘It’s not like those ratings mean anything, it’s more like’…what’s the word I’m looking for here?”
“You mean ‘It’s more like they’re guidelines?'” I asked”
“Exactly!” she said. “Like Pirates of the Caribbean, which is fitting, since they are real, live 21st Century Pirates.”
by Downtowner, posted on Thursday, August 4th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Though this one is a bit of a biggie: the Down closed down 512 points, its worst day since 2008, you know, the last time our economy crashed into the most serious recession since the Great Depression.
Next up: jobs report, due out tomorrow. But I’m sure that will be good news. Lots of people are saying that it’s going to be good news. Sure, none of the unemployed people I know are saying that, but lots of people are optimistic. I know I read that somewhere on the intertubes.
by Downtowner, posted on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011 at 12:26 pm
Really, I can’t thank those Tea Partiers enough for making all the right moves to ensure that we continue to push the Great Recession well along the way toward becoming the Greatest Depression.
Today we’ve learned that in the wake of the Debt Ceiling Deal of Doom being signed, sealed and delivered, the stock market continues an alarming slide and the Chinese have downgraded our credit rating. A special shout out to Enabler in Chief Barack Obama, for his exquisitly choreographed moves in response to the Economic Terrorists in Congress. But I want to reserve my most special shout out of all for local Illinois Economic Terrorists Randy Hultgren and Joe Walsh, because it’s just not easy for two freshmen congresscritters-turned-economic-terrorists to accomplish so much in such a short time. Helluva Job!
Damn. I just used the “j” word didn’t I? Sorry, so sorry. Forgot. We are all supposed to be pretending that there is no problem with one in ten Americans being unemployed by obsessively focusing on a deficit that could be much better handled if we just worked on getting them jobs. Damn. Did it again didn’t I?
by Downtowner, posted on Sunday, July 31st, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Well, this has been an interesting cap on an interesting few weeks. I’ve spent most of this evening trying not to have a hyperbolic reaction to the Deal of Debt Ceiling Global Economic Doom, but, well, guess you can tell from the term I’ve applied to it that I’ve largely failed.
I’d have to say the most prevalent reaction to the Deal of Debt Ceiling Global Economic Doom I am seeing on lefty blogs tonight seems so hyperbolic on the face of it (We’re DOOMED) that I tried and tried to resist the impulse to say the same. But there it is. I think we might well be doomed.
by Downtowner, posted on Monday, June 28th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Paul Krugman’s Sunday column about the Depression he believes we are experiencing the early stages of made me think about the state of affairs here in Obama’s home state of Illinois. The whole column is worth a read, but it was this part that caught my attention:
The Obama administration understands the dangers of premature fiscal austerity — but because Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress won’t authorize additional aid to state governments, that austerity is coming anyway, in the form of budget cuts at the state and local levels.
As states go, I think I can make the case that Illinois is at the forefront in already having achieved “premature fiscal austerity” and the effects on actual individuals, particularly in the area of job loss, are worth looking at, for we are in the unique position of being the bellwether for the nation in this area.