Tag: economic stimulus

Another common sense economics lesson

September 14, 2012 at 9:52 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Prof. Paul Krugman explains some basic facts about how to stimulate an economy today. The column — entitled the “I-Phone stimulus” makes it so clear and simple that even politicians ought to be able to understand it.

The only problem, of course, with Krugman’s prescription is that it’s not based on the only politically viable strategy in the modern American plutocracy, i.e. giving even more money to rich people and large corporations.

 

More evidence that austerity doesn’t work

August 15, 2012 at 3:54 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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The latest issue of the NC Budget and Tax Center’s Prosperity Watch is out and it provides additional confirmation that government austerity ain’t what is needed to get the economy going.

“Recent trends in the national labor market demonstrate the harm inflicted on the economy by cutting government spending and laying off government employees in the middle of an already challenging economic recovery.  Just as with private sector layoffs, government layoffs increase the number of people out of work.  And given that there are already nearly three times the number of people looking for work than there are job openings, these public sector layoffs only serve to increase overall unemployment.”

Read the entire story by clicking here.

Conservative hypocrisy on government and jobs creation

July 19, 2012 at 7:27 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Conservative politicians of both parties are frequently guilty of hypocrisy when it comes to the issue of government’s role in job creation. Most of the time, these pols parrot the market fundamentalist line that government can do nothing to promote economic growth — except, that is, when the issue is a government program or expenditure in their district.

Think Progress posted some new and classic examples late yesterday. of conservative politicians trying to have it both ways.

A brief history lesson on the importance of unemployment insurance

May 22, 2012 at 3:33 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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This morning, Raleigh’s News & Observer was kind enough to publish an essay I wrote that details some of the history of unemployment insurance in the United States, its importance in making our economy work more effectively and the recurring, counter-productive efforts by various misguided groups to undermine it. Unfortunately, space limitations forced the elimination of  a couple of passages from my original draft.

Happily, the folks at NC Policy Watch (for whom I hope to be contributing on an occasional basis in the days to come) have been kind enough to allow me to publish the entire piece below. I hope you will enjoy it.

Unemployment compensation: A win-win for business and families Read More…

Conservative policies take the British economy back underwater

April 26, 2012 at 4:38 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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As noted here and here and here and here, the new economic data from Great Britain are in and they provide extremely bad news for those who champion slashing public expenditures.