According to Robert Reich - I am a Structuralist

Robert Reich on The Causes of the Economic Downturn

"But structuralists see it very differently. The bursting of the housing bubble caused the current crisis, but the underlying problem began much earlier -- in the late 1970s, when median U.S. incomes began to stall. Because wages got hit then by the double-whammy of global competition and new technologies, the typical American family was able to maintain its living standard only if women went into the workforce in larger numbers, and later, only if everyone worked longer hours.

When even these coping mechanisms were exhausted, families went into debt -- a strategy that was viable as long as home values continued to rise. But when the housing bubble burst, families were no longer able to easily refinance and take out home-equity loans. The result: Americans no longer have the money to keep consuming. When you consider that consumers make up 70 percent of the economy, the magnitude of the problem becomes apparent."

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Financial Regulation - Coming Soon

Obama to act fast on financial rules
The financial gurus have repented. Paul Volker and Tim Guitner and their teams are looking to begin actually regulating the financial instruments that led to the financial meltdown.

For example, credit raters are often paid by the inventors of tricky financial products to help construct products that the raters then rate. That is like being able to write your own performance review. Go figure?!?!

Robert Reich Open Letter for Truth- Conservative media figures falsely suggest that Reich proposed excluding white males from stimulus package

Conservative media figures falsely suggest that Reich proposed excluding white males from stimulus package.

This article and reich's blog post on the matter (Open Letter to Rush et al ) is a great read. If we think truth is important and slander and libel are immoral and unbecoming of Civil dialogue, then we will read and understand the real skewed perspective some of these partisans have.

Obama and Repulicans on Stimulus

Obama Fleshes Out Further Details of Stimulus Plan

I am getting rather frustrated with this stimulus package. There are far too many business tax cuts. Think about this. If I am a business and consumers have money to buy 100 widgets and I make 10 dollars profit on those widgets, if I am taxed less on profit will I now build 110 widgets. NO!! I still can only sell 100 widgets. Lower taxes on businesses do not lead to more production when we already have too much capacity. The problem is demand.

The stimulus package should have only items that create jobs and put dollars in the demand side, the consumer. I am absolutely convinced that republican dogma is clouding people's thinking and the president is not standing up to this muddled thinking.

War and non-remembrance - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

War and non-remembrance - Paul Krugman's Blog today is pretty hilarious. It shows me how ideologues get kinda slow when they try to defend..ahh... that the sky is not blue.

No Solution - The Obama Gap - December 2008 Unemployment

The Obama Gap - Paul Krugman
Unemployment Numbers Dec 2008
Even Paul Krugman, appears unwilling to say what the real problem is. The fact is the real problem is still not being solved.
The problem is wealth polarization and wage stagnation. This unwillingness to discuss the real problem makes the problem that much bigger.

The fact of the matter is that the only people who have the kind of money needed to jump start the economy is the rich.

I warned about this in September 2008 - The Solution is Wage Infalation via Tax Policy
and again in October 2008 - Stimulus and the Need for Wealth Distribution
The problem is simple. In order to compete on Wall Street companies need to make huge, huge profits. The result is even is a company makes huge profits their stock prices fall because someone else makes huge, huge profit. So to be competitve companies must lower wage.

The only way to solve this is for government to change the rules of the game. A good example would be to return to income tax levels on the rich that are pre-Reagan.

Ross, Holbrooke, Haass To Serve As Envoys

Ross, Holbrooke, Haass To Serve As Envoys

Huge news, Dennis Ross reported in as envoy/negotiator on everything Iran. All I can say is - OMG.

There is absolutely no doubt in Obama's very strong even hawkish pro-Israel position. This is fantastic news for Israel. I am reading Statecraft currently and, basically, Ross is a hero of mine.