Looks like my new boss’s “middle out” message is beginning to gain traction with political candidates:
That’s former President Jimmy Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, running for governor of Georgia: “The best way to have a strong economy is to have middle class people with money in their pockets.”
And the other day, an AP news report made this matter of fact statement: “That report ties the slowed [sales tax revenue] growth to rising income inequality, which appears to stunt overall economic growth.”
This is the new conventional wisdom (as it should be) that income inequality is bad for the economy. Welcome to the dawning of the post-Trickle Down era.
Here’s a free e-book of an Oxford study of “secular stagnation” gathering the views of several very prominent economists that may be of interest to economics wonks. http://www.voxeu.org/content/s.....-and-cures
I still see supply-side arguments on investing blogs I read (“we must cut corporate taxes because there’s not enough investment”) — not infrequently accompanied with comments like, “And, no, I don’t believe in climate change,” which seem intended to establish the commenter’s cred with other like-minded commenters.
Judging by the company it keeps, supply-side economics not only doesn’t stand up to meritorious analysis, it also hangs out in bad neighborhoods, which drags down its reputation even further.
Of course, almost anyone who knows anything about economics and isn’t enslaved to a goose-stepping ideology knows the problem is demand, not supply, and we can’t invest our way out of this. Tax cuts help only if consumers get them; giving rich investors tax cuts is useless from the standpoint of helping the economy to recover.
CNBC reports, “A top Wall Street market observer thinks the government is hurting the economic recovery by unfairly constraining banks and continuing bad policies.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102013290
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I have two questions and a comment.
Question #1: Why should anyone listen to a banker?
Question #2: Has this guy ever heard of “market failure”?
Comment: The economy needs fiscal stimulus, not bad banks.
Do any of you really think that the main problem with the typical Republican ‘Bubba’ is that he needs to disavow supply side economic theory in favor of a more Keynesian approach?
@4 That would help, but Bubba can help even more by not reproducing. We have too many Bubbas, and we can’t teach our way out of this situation.
How Much Do The 10 Richest Americans Give To Charity?
Percentage of net worth donated to charity:
1. Bill Gates Jr. – 9.25%
2. Warren Buffett – 12.29%
3. Larry Ellison – 0.49%
4. David Koch – 0.50%
5. Charles Koch – 0.44%
6. Christy Walton – 0.04%
7. Jim Walton – 0.00004%
8. Alice Walton – 0.01%
9. Rob Walton – 0.00003%
10. Michael Bloomberg – 9.0%
Middle Class Average – 0.461%
(Source: Mother Jones)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Yep, you got it, the Waltons — who employ more minimum-wage workers than anyone else in the world — are skinflints. On a percentage basis, the average middle class American gives 230 times as much of his/her income to charity as the Waltons.
Conservative cheapskates
Anyone who would vote for a Carter ( Jimmy the Jew hater was one of the worst Presidents) is an idiot.
LOL!! Menahem Begin really felt the heat from Carter to make up with Egypt at Camp David and give up the Sinai.
Menahem and Ariel Sharon CAVED from that “anti-semitsm”. Imagine that.
Ooooh those images of desert greening jewish Israeli settlers being removed from the Sinai. That must really rankle the hearts of hard core Zionists. They blame it on Carter right?
Some people will do anything for money:
“A federal jury convicted the owner of a peanut plant and two others Friday in connection with a salmonella outbreak that … sickened hundreds across the country and was linked to several deaths. …
“Stewart Parnell was convicted on numerous counts including conspiracy, wire fraud and obstruction of justice related to shipping tainted peanut butter to customers and faking results of lab tests intended to screen for salmonella. His brother, Michael Parnell, was also found guilty on multiple charges …. The jury also found Mary Wilkerson, the plant’s quality assurance manager, guilty of obstruction of justice … 714 people in 46 states were infected and nine people died ….”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pe.....-outbreak/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Wikipedia notes this company, started in 1977 and closed in 2009, had repeated food safety issues throughout nearly its entire history.
People in red states are more likely to be killed by guns.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/st.....un-deaths/
This is what a “free market” looks like.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local.....767955.php
Austerity Failing In Japan, Too
“Mr. Abe took office in December 2012 and quickly engineered an upturn in growth that was dubbed Abenomics. Mr. Abe’s policies were backed by the monetary ‘bazooka’ of Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, who started flooding the economy with more cash in April 2013. Though economists warned that the recovery was still fragile, Mr. Abe decided to increase taxes, hoping to reduce Japan’s massive debt load. On Friday, top government officials stuck by their view that Abenomics remains on track. Officials described the downturn in consumer spending as temporary, suggesting it had been exacerbated by rainy summer weather in parts of western Japan.” (Quoted from a Wall Street Journal article available only to subscribers online)
They’re deluding themselves with wishful thinking. What’s now happening in Japan, which last spring raised its national sales tax from 5% to 8%, and where wages are shrinking as in the U.S. and Europe, is more proof that the austerity policies favored by conservatives not only don’t work, but make weak economies worse. Of course, several other factors also are at work in Japan’s somewhat unique economy, most of them tracing back to wage decline, same as in America and virtually all other economies. For example, Japan’s average age is rising because young people can’t afford to marry and have families because of low wages and insecure jobs. It turns out that screwing over workers, the favorite policy of cheap labor conservatives, isn’t a viable strategy for economic growth — imagine that.