Whether he is a cretin on some other issue, I make no warrant. But this one he got right, unlike many others. And it's important, because there is a horrible political dynamic underway in which some liberals are trying to out-Republican the Republicans on the deficit. They are wrong. Now is the wrong time to raise taxes.
On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 8:19 PM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > On 12/6/10 9:05 PM, Robert Naiman wrote: >> I'm glad somebody remembered Keynes 101. >> >> http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/why-liberals-shouldnt-despair-about-the-bush-tax-cut-deal/67541 >> >> Atlantic Monthly >> >> Why Liberals Shouldn't Despair About the Bush Tax Cut Deal >> >> By Derek Thompson >> >> The White House and Congressional Republicans are close to a deal that >> would extend the entire Bush tax cuts, including for the contentious >> top two percent, for two or three years. In return, crestfallen >> Democrats would get a significant extension of unemployment benefits. >> > > Derek Thompson, like 90 percent of the people working at the Atlantic, > is a cretin. > > http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/11/here-come-the-jobs-the-case-for-economic-optimism-in-2011/66159/ > > Here Come the Jobs! The Case for Economic Optimism in 2011 > > Nov 5 2010, 11:20 AM ET 4 > > Today's unemployment report is the best news we've heard from the labor > market in half a year. After months of flat job growth, this is > equivalent of calling it the warmest ice cube in the fridge. The private > sector added 159,000 jobs, but the unemployment rate stayed frozen at > 9.6 percent. > > Today, the jobs picture is a tug-of-war between the private and public > sector. Private companies are tugging toward growth, adding an average > of 111,000 jobs each month this year, nearly enough to keep up with > population growth. But federal, state and local governments are > contracting by 24,000 jobs a month. > > But underneath the top-line numbers, there is good news stirring. It has > to do with you -- yes you -- and your falling productivity. > > While productivity inched up in yesterday's report, workers' > output-per-hour has stalled in the last year. That sounds bad. Higher > productivity points to higher living standards. But in a recession, we > want productivity numbers to hit a ceiling. That means employers have > run their current employees ragged and the only way to make more stuff > is to hire more workers. More workers means lower unemployment and > higher demand. > > (clip) > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] Attend a "South of the Border" Screening on Human Rights Day http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/southofobama/search _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
