This pretty much says it all:
How To Wreck an Economy in Eight Short Years
(HT Kevin Drum)
Showing posts with label economic crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economic crisis. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Resources for the NY 20th Congressional District Race
Here’s a neat compendium of specific steps that led to the current economic catastrophe:.
[H/T to Avram]
While I have criticisms of Barack Obama's approach to certain aspects of this multidimensional train wreck (i.e., I think the government should take over, clean up & sell off the zombie banks ASAP; I also think he asked for too small a stimulus package at the outset), I think he's trying, in general, to do the right things in the right ways. (Contrast his approach to that of the GOP, which is continually pressuring Obama to cut taxes & spending--a guaranteed recipe for total economic collapse.)
Speaking of the GOP, Representative Patrick McHenry, their head of messaging, declared today that the GOP doesn't care whether their criticisms of Obama are accurate or not--their aim is to continually bombard Obama with charges from now until the 2010 elections, based on the idea that sheer repetition will make those criticisms sink in. Sort of like Joseph Goebbels, actually.
The other day, the GOP released their idea of a budget—with no numbers.
The focus of their 18-page document was attacks on Obama’s proposed budget due to its higher projected deficits (interesting, given the GOP record on financial matters), healthcare spending, lawyers, unions, and of course, ACORN. In short, it was an excuse to attack the Obama plan for problems created largely by the GOP (when they were in power), important supporters of the Democratic Party, and their perennial favorite red herring, ACORN.
To the extent that there was anything one might call specific in the GOP document, it was pretty extreme stuff, and certainly not the sort of thing one would expect them to want to run on in the next election.
Meanwhile current healthcare coverage in the U.S. is unavailable to 18 percent of the population, according to the National Coalition on Health Care:.
It is also far worse than that offered by other industrialized countries:.
Moreover, healthcare is projected to be the biggest component of future deficits:.
Yet the GOP (predictably) omits healthcare reform from their so-called budget document (and given the way they’ve performed for the past 29 years, they can be predicted reliably to make a bad situation worse).
In short, if we want to deal with the ever-worsening healthcare and economic crises, we have to address them in combination. The only approach available to us with a reasonable chance of success is Obama’s. It is a simple matter of national self-preservation to support it.
To that end, we need to get progressive Democrats and other like-minded people into Congress. The election Tuesday in the NY State 20th Congressional district race to succeed Kristen Gillibrand features Democrat Scott Murphy against Republican State Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco and is being framed as a referendum on President Obama’s stimulus bill and budget priorities. Murphy is an entrepreneur who founded Small World Software and a venture capitalist, who worked for the late Democratic Missouri governor, Mel Carnahan. Tedisco is a long-time fixture in Albany politics who has emphasized the issue of missing children.
Obama will probably be able to get legislation through the House without a Democratic victory in this race; the implications for the Senate, where the Democratic majority is much smaller, is quite another story. The GOP sees this as a must-win election. Let’s give them indigestion.
[H/T to Avram]
While I have criticisms of Barack Obama's approach to certain aspects of this multidimensional train wreck (i.e., I think the government should take over, clean up & sell off the zombie banks ASAP; I also think he asked for too small a stimulus package at the outset), I think he's trying, in general, to do the right things in the right ways. (Contrast his approach to that of the GOP, which is continually pressuring Obama to cut taxes & spending--a guaranteed recipe for total economic collapse.)
Speaking of the GOP, Representative Patrick McHenry, their head of messaging, declared today that the GOP doesn't care whether their criticisms of Obama are accurate or not--their aim is to continually bombard Obama with charges from now until the 2010 elections, based on the idea that sheer repetition will make those criticisms sink in. Sort of like Joseph Goebbels, actually.
The other day, the GOP released their idea of a budget—with no numbers.
The focus of their 18-page document was attacks on Obama’s proposed budget due to its higher projected deficits (interesting, given the GOP record on financial matters), healthcare spending, lawyers, unions, and of course, ACORN. In short, it was an excuse to attack the Obama plan for problems created largely by the GOP (when they were in power), important supporters of the Democratic Party, and their perennial favorite red herring, ACORN.
To the extent that there was anything one might call specific in the GOP document, it was pretty extreme stuff, and certainly not the sort of thing one would expect them to want to run on in the next election.
Meanwhile current healthcare coverage in the U.S. is unavailable to 18 percent of the population, according to the National Coalition on Health Care:.
It is also far worse than that offered by other industrialized countries:.
Moreover, healthcare is projected to be the biggest component of future deficits:.
Yet the GOP (predictably) omits healthcare reform from their so-called budget document (and given the way they’ve performed for the past 29 years, they can be predicted reliably to make a bad situation worse).
In short, if we want to deal with the ever-worsening healthcare and economic crises, we have to address them in combination. The only approach available to us with a reasonable chance of success is Obama’s. It is a simple matter of national self-preservation to support it.
To that end, we need to get progressive Democrats and other like-minded people into Congress. The election Tuesday in the NY State 20th Congressional district race to succeed Kristen Gillibrand features Democrat Scott Murphy against Republican State Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco and is being framed as a referendum on President Obama’s stimulus bill and budget priorities. Murphy is an entrepreneur who founded Small World Software and a venture capitalist, who worked for the late Democratic Missouri governor, Mel Carnahan. Tedisco is a long-time fixture in Albany politics who has emphasized the issue of missing children.
Obama will probably be able to get legislation through the House without a Democratic victory in this race; the implications for the Senate, where the Democratic majority is much smaller, is quite another story. The GOP sees this as a must-win election. Let’s give them indigestion.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Budget Links and Where Do We Go From Here?
By now, everyone knows we’re in midst of the worst recession since World War II, and possibly the Great Depression.
Here’s a collection of graphs providing graphic representations of where we are right now, economically speaking.
And here’s some anecdotal evidence.
In response, President Obama has put forth a budget for fiscal year 2010, projecting into the next 10 years.
The budget bill includes the following:
• $634 billion for health reform, 2009-2019
• higher taxes on the affluent to pay for healthcare reform
• ending the gradual privatization of Medicare
• eliminating overpayments to insurance companies
• $645 billion in revenues: sale of emission allowances
• deficit reduction
• cuts to Agribusiness subsidies
• cuts to large-scale weapons systems
• increases in pay and benefits to military personnel
• elimination of student loan financial intermediaries
Here’s a detailed analysis by Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
And unlike the Bush budgets, Obama’s is honest:.
At TNR, Bradford Plumer explores the White House’s assumptions in the budget regarding global warming (yes, we can call it global warming now):.
Many economists have expressed varying degrees of optimism regarding the Obama budget. Paul Krugman calls it “very, very good” while expressing concern about longer-term implications about deficits, social security and taxation, all of which he thinks we can address after the economy regains its equilibrium.
Pete Davis supports Obama’s efforts as well.
Stan Collander agrees.
Jeff Frankel, who was at first skeptical, is now enthusiastic about Obama’s budget and analyzes it in terms of its elimination of the various dishonest manipulations of past budgets (especially Bush’s) and its ability to lead to long-term deficit reduction here.
Here’s a collection of links to various reactions to the tax portions of Obama’s budget plan.
As we all know, the GOP is gearing up to present massive resistance to President Obama’s budget bill. This, of course, includes the tea parties being conducted around the country and may very well include use of the filibuster in Congress.
In response to current signs of GOP hostility to the budget bill and in anticipation of more in the coming months, the big scary libruls are gearing up to lobby for President Obama's budget legislation.
Healthcare expert Merrill Goozner discusses the healthcare portions of the Obama budget plan, discusses the politics of the coming battle, and issues a call to action to all of us.
It seems to me that if we expect to get out of this mess, and if we intend to reduce the deficit afterwards, deal with global warming, our declining public education system, our deteriorating healthcare system, and many of the other disasters bequeathed to us by Bush et al, we need to get this budget passed. I really don’t think anything else on any progressive agenda will get done without it.
If you agree, the next question is what we can do to support Obama’s efforts to get the budget through Congress. Please feel free to comment.
Here’s a collection of graphs providing graphic representations of where we are right now, economically speaking.
And here’s some anecdotal evidence.
In response, President Obama has put forth a budget for fiscal year 2010, projecting into the next 10 years.
The budget bill includes the following:
• $634 billion for health reform, 2009-2019
• higher taxes on the affluent to pay for healthcare reform
• ending the gradual privatization of Medicare
• eliminating overpayments to insurance companies
• $645 billion in revenues: sale of emission allowances
• deficit reduction
• cuts to Agribusiness subsidies
• cuts to large-scale weapons systems
• increases in pay and benefits to military personnel
• elimination of student loan financial intermediaries
Here’s a detailed analysis by Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
And unlike the Bush budgets, Obama’s is honest:.
At TNR, Bradford Plumer explores the White House’s assumptions in the budget regarding global warming (yes, we can call it global warming now):.
Many economists have expressed varying degrees of optimism regarding the Obama budget. Paul Krugman calls it “very, very good” while expressing concern about longer-term implications about deficits, social security and taxation, all of which he thinks we can address after the economy regains its equilibrium.
Pete Davis supports Obama’s efforts as well.
Stan Collander agrees.
Jeff Frankel, who was at first skeptical, is now enthusiastic about Obama’s budget and analyzes it in terms of its elimination of the various dishonest manipulations of past budgets (especially Bush’s) and its ability to lead to long-term deficit reduction here.
Here’s a collection of links to various reactions to the tax portions of Obama’s budget plan.
As we all know, the GOP is gearing up to present massive resistance to President Obama’s budget bill. This, of course, includes the tea parties being conducted around the country and may very well include use of the filibuster in Congress.
In response to current signs of GOP hostility to the budget bill and in anticipation of more in the coming months, the big scary libruls are gearing up to lobby for President Obama's budget legislation.
Healthcare expert Merrill Goozner discusses the healthcare portions of the Obama budget plan, discusses the politics of the coming battle, and issues a call to action to all of us.
It seems to me that if we expect to get out of this mess, and if we intend to reduce the deficit afterwards, deal with global warming, our declining public education system, our deteriorating healthcare system, and many of the other disasters bequeathed to us by Bush et al, we need to get this budget passed. I really don’t think anything else on any progressive agenda will get done without it.
If you agree, the next question is what we can do to support Obama’s efforts to get the budget through Congress. Please feel free to comment.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Look—A Bird!
Now that the economy is tanking, free market absolutists and various GOP apologists are, predictably enough, twisting themselves into pretzels attempting to dodge responsibility for this latest and perhaps most spectacular of a seemingly endless series of Bush administration disasters. It’s all the fault of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they claimed. No, it’s those nasty unions. When in doubt, blame Bill Clinton and racial minorities.
Before anyone forgets, here’s a Washington Post article outlining specific things the Bush administration did and did not do to help our economy crumble into the worst recession in years.
Before anyone forgets, here’s a Washington Post article outlining specific things the Bush administration did and did not do to help our economy crumble into the worst recession in years.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Hurricane Katrina, Economic Version
I've scoured the web for commentary by economists and others on the collapse of the U.S. finance industry (and economy in general) so you don't have to:
Background
Brad DeLong: Mark Thoma Is a Leading Indicator
Economist’s View (Mark Thoma): An Overview of the Crisis and What to Do about It (
Paul Krugman: Crisis Endgame
Brad DeLong: Thoughts on the Big Buyout
Thomas Palley: The Liquidation Trap
Econobrowser (Menzie Chinn): Some Observations on the Ongoing Crisis: Causes and Opportunity Cost Again
Brad DeLong: Understanding the Three Ways of Dealing with Financial Crises
Capital Gains and Games (Andrew Samwick): The Ownership Society, International Edition
Paulson’s bailout proposal
Calculated Risk: Bailout Proposal
Objections to the Paulson bailout plan
Daily Kos (gjohnsit): What in the Hell Just Happened?
emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler): No
Glenn Greenwald: The complete (though ever-changing) elite consensus over the financial collapse
Paul Krugman: No Deal
Mark Kleiman: Paulson Channels Cheney
Tyler Cowen: Luigi Zingales on the Paulson Bailout—Kazow!
Capital Gains and Games (Andrew Samwick): Financial Frustration
The Edge of the American West: New Deal or No Deal
Matt Stoller: If a Legal Armed Robbery Happens in Front of Everyone, Does It Make a Sound?
Alternatives
Dean Baker: Progressive Conditions for a Bailout
Matthew Yglesias: Mallaby: This Deal Stinks
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