On Friday, December 5, 2008 at 10:52:32 (-0500) Louis Proyect writes: >Bill Lear wrote: >> >> The writer, after noting the "steep deficit spending" seen on the >> horizon by the Wall Street Journal, quotes with approval "Merrill >> Lynch economist David Rosenberg" who claims "it was excess (debt and) >> leverage that got us into this mess", which is conventional, but I >> think quite wrong, as Dean Baker has pointed out. Rosenberg then >> claims we need savings to rise to get us out of this mess, which >> seems a recipe for disaster. > >Bill, I didn't find any "approval" in Lendman's article. I think he was >quoting Rosenberg just to put things into context. You'll note that he >put scare quotes around "frugal", which sort of indicates to me that he >has a different outlook than Rosenberg.
Rosenberg is described approvingly as "the first Wall Street economist to predict recession". The author then goes on to mirror Rosenberg's negative views of deficit spending when he says Obama Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will very likely "pile more debt on the current unsustainable amount". So, yes, contrary to your misreading, he was quite approving of very conventional and erroneous views. Bill _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
