New York TIMES / November 1, 2008 To the Editor:
Re "But Have We Learned Enough?" (Economic View, Oct. 26), which compared the present-day financial crisis with the Great Depression without mentioning income inequality or overproduction as factors common to both times. Is it pure coincidence that American levels of income inequality have grown in the last 15 years? Or that average real American incomes stagnated or declined as auto manufacturers spoke of overcapacity? Doesn't a strained limit of consumer purchasing power, in addition to lending and derivatives practices, ultimately underlie the housing crisis? Apparently, to answer the headline, we have not learned enough. Perhaps it is time to reread Keynes, who understood capitalism to be innately crisis-prone — or better yet, Marx — and look to the economic tendencies hollowing out working-class incomes and living standards. Christopher Phelps Mansfield, Ohio, Oct. 26 [They published this?!?] -- Jim Devine / "Nobody told me there'd be days like these / Strange days indeed -- most peculiar, mama." -- JL. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
