________________________________
From: Arthur Cordell <[email protected]>
To: 'Ed Weick' <[email protected]>; "'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,
EDUCATION'" <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 1:22:13 PM
Subject: RE: [Futurework] Capitalism is killing our morals, our future -
MarketWatch
You’re quite right, Arthur, the patient
remains ill. However, I see the illness
as being of two kinds. One is moral, the
other is physical. Banks that were
instrumental in the sub-prime mortgage crisis in 2007-08 should have been
allowed to fail, as Lehman Brothers did. But whether they should have failed
or not is irrelevant, they are still
mostly with us and are generally behaving in the same way as before. Even if
some of the toxins had been flushed,
they would have built up again. That is
the nature of the big business beast. The cure for this aspect of the illness
is tough legislation and much
stricter regulation.
With regard to the physical aspect of the
illness, one has to think of how dependent we all are on the ability of the
economy to provide people with jobs and income. Whether it is sick, corrupt or
whatever, people still need it and are
not in a position to wait until its immune system is flushed out. This is
where the kinds of spending
initiatives pushed by Krugman and others come in.
And yes, prosperity is just around the
corner. For most people, that’s where it’ll always be. Victory may never be at
hand, but that
shouldn’t stop people from hoping for a better future.
Ed
Let’s think of the economy as a body that has become ill. The economic doctors
rushed in and were so worried about what might happen to the banks,
corporations and who knows what else that they decided to not let the illness
run its course, not let the immune system do its work, not let the patient go
through the illness. No, they decided to pump all sorts of medicine into the
patient thereby short circuiting the patients immune system. Bad debts were
papered over (with printed money), banks that should have gone under thereby
flushing bad toxins out of the system were kept alive, “investors”…read
speculators should have felt the pain of losses, etc. No the economic doctors
didn’t allow the cycle to go forward and perhaps damage some of the assets of
donors and friends. So the donors and friends were saved. Workers who would
have lost no matter which course was taken were lost in any event.
Fast forward. Now we have a patient on life support. A patient that was not
allowed to flush the toxins, whose immune system was not bolstered by fighting
the infections of derivatives, shady banking, leveraged you name it.
So here we are. Krugman sounding like the song aimed at LBJ during the VietNam
war. “We are waist deep in the big muddy and the big fool says to push on…”
Keep the printing presses going 24/7 if necessary: victory is at hand. Or
perhaps even better “prosperity is just around the corner”.
Arthur
From:[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 8:46 AM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Capitalism is killing our morals, our future -
MarketWatch
I don't understand all of this negativity about Krugman. I read him quite
regularly and find that he has interesting and thought provoking things to say.
Essentially, he's a Keynesian and though Keynes is a little dated now, he
still offers some solutions. However, the economy would likely have to be
reset considerably to apply those solutions.
The resetting process would have to find a strong reason for spending. Central
bankers have seen to it that there is plenty of money at hand and interest
rates are as flat as they can be. Still nothing is happening. Neither the
private sector nor the public sector are inclined to do very much. Perhaps we
need a war? The huge amounts of spending required to fight WWII and then
rebuild brought about very good economic times for two or three decades
thereafter. Many, including, Krugman, have argued that a way to end the
current malaise is to rebuild crumbling public infrastructure, but that isn't
about to happen.
The problem is that our governments are now into austerity and sequestration --
into cutting back or shutting down spending. Thinkers like Krugman are urging
an opening up, doing useful things and putting people back to work. I see a
lot of merit in that.
Ed
From:Keith Hudson <[email protected]>
To: "RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUATION"
<[email protected]>; [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 6:46:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Capitalism is killing our morals, our future -
MarketWatch
At 06:01 30/04/2013, you wrote:
------->
>(MS) Afterthought: Maybe Krugman is more like Tiresias than Cassandra.
Though he doesn't have to transform into female form. It's said that Mrs.
Krugman is the instigator of his op-eds.
Keith
me> Arthur wrote:
me>
me>> I don't perceive professor Krugman as a whiner but more as a
me>> Cassandra.
me>
me> That's my perception, too.
REH> Actually REH wrote that.
Ummmmm.... Lemme see here...Ooop, right. Sorry.
So I missed Arthur's squib, too, which was to follow your
above-misattributed remark with:
Arthur> Yes someone who can't get enough of the spotlight.
So Krugman is a sort of prima donna? Hogging the spotlight, upstaging
the other figures in the drama? Well, I dunno. If he just put out
stuff equitably reasoned in the highly qualified propositions and
tentative hypotheses of an academic paper on economics, most people,
even readers of the NYT, would never wade through it.
At least he writes readable prose, readable enough to merit
criticism. Better than extemporaneous rants posted to U-tube.
Afterthought: Maybe Krugman is more like Tiresias than Cassandra.
- Mike
--
Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
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