The Ultimate Flaw in Obamanomics

Reaganomics/Bushynomics was a bust

You said :

"My take: It's worth noting that plenty of liberals and Democrats think it would be just fine to return top rates to just the stratospheric levels examined by the CBO. (I appear with them all the time on TV.) The (silly) argument: The economy did just fine at those rates in the 1950s—why not today? I believe John McCain's policy director, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, gave a pretty good answer in a chat with me not long ago:

Because you would also have to root for a world war and have the other economies in the world literally in ruins. "

Either you SuperLie-Siders can't get your stories straight , or Holtz-Eakin knows as little about economics as does McCain.

You always preach about the benefits to the U.S. economy that derives from globalization , since growing numbers of middle-class consumers worldwide will expand the market for U.S.-produced goods and services. If that's true , then the "ruined" world economy of the '50s would have been a DETRIMENT to our economic growth . Presumably , things would have been even better for us had world economies been healthier. Also , the World War was in the '40's , not the '50's , and the '50's were characterized by the rapid reduction in the federal debt/GDP ratio as taxes were raised to pay off the war debt. This should have been a further drag on the economy , yet it was not. The reason is that prosperity was widely-shared then , unlike now , which provided the necessary DEMAND side of the supply-demand interaction that so many of your brilliant rightwing economists have forgotten about.

Because wages have not kept pace with productivity growth , as in the postwar decades , the source of consumer demand in the past 25 years has been placed on the backs of future generations , with skyrocketing levels of public and private debt. Much of the private debt , as it goes into default , will no doubt be added to the public ledgers in order to bail out the principal welfare recipients of this country - Wall Street financiers

Face it , you guys have been cheerleaders for policies that have crippled the strongest economy the world has ever known. When this housing bust is over , the vast majority of middle-class Americans will have little or no negative net wealth , save for that represented by their future claims on Social Security and Medicare , and now you want to diminish the value of that as well ? How do you sleep at night ?

Gordon Gekko would be proud of you.

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Goldilocksisableachblonde of MD @ May 24, 2008 14:12:25 PM