The New Republic

And the more Republicans focus on cutting Government spending, the more jobs just slip through their fingers. Star Wars was right.

- AllanL5

August 18, 2011 at 10:51am

I think the problem is that we were late with tax cuts. Eleven years ago is not enough time for them to kick in.

- Nusholtz

August 18, 2011 at 11:34am

Get that Infrastructure bank going if even if it has to be funded with repatriated corporate profits, of course, with necessary caveats to spur job creation. Even Roi of all people is open to this in some form.

- wkwami

August 18, 2011 at 12:13pm

Basically, get government spending heavily in the short term. Infrastructure, WPA, CCC-- most anything with a high Keynesian mustiplier. That ain't gonna happen with the Repubs in control of the House, BHO as Prez, and a fair number of Blue Dog or spineless Senate Dems. To think otherwise is more magical thinking than Chait has yet desribed. Your only (very small) hope is to replace them with Progressives who advocate-- and vote for--Keynesian policies (Most of which the voters already support!!).

- drofnats1

August 18, 2011 at 2:34pm

You must have missed the part, wkwami, where I said that the idea of an infrastructure bank funded with more tax gifts from the Treasury to the rich is sheer desperation, driven by "the need to appear to be doing something while actually doing nothing. Smoke, without even a bad mirror."

- roidubouloi

August 18, 2011 at 6:17pm

I also said that I would be willing to pay extortion to the rich -- the essence of the infrastructure bank proposal -- of 10 cents on the dollar in exchange for an immediate $2 trillion spending program, not tax cuts, spending, the sort of Keynesian stimulus drofnats is referring to. I also pointed out that the chances of that happening are vanishingly small. An infrastructure bank sounds good (that's the purpose, to sound good) but will accomplish very little because it would require the states to borrow, something they will not be in a position to do. If it is funded by the Treasury, it is at worst harmless in that nothing happens, but granting a huge tax cut for the rich who are then supposed to put the money we gave them into this bank is ridiculous. It is but a variation of the supply-side nuttery, that more tax cuts for the rich will somehow avail us. They won't. They are a large part of what created our current situation.

- roidubouloi

August 18, 2011 at 6:25pm

"I also said that I would be willing to pay extortion to the rich -- the essence of the infrastructure bank proposal -- of 10 cents on the dollar in exchange for an immediate $2 trillion spending program, not tax cuts, spending, the sort of Keynesian stimulus drofnats is referring to. I also pointed out that the chances of that happening are vanishingly small." Roi, you said you were open to the idea in some form, a 10:1 ratio which you repeat above. So why qualify it by saying the chances of it happening are vanishingly small? The point is, you're for it in some form, that is all that matters. Will the idea always be ridiculous or does it stop being ridiculous once your terms are met?

- wkwami

August 18, 2011 at 8:33pm

When my terms are met. You seem to have missed that I was ridiculing the proposal to pay extortion by saying that I would only pay it in the event that all of my demands, $2 trillion of spending stimulus, are met, and then only at a maximum rate of 10 cents on the dollar. I suggested that you and Obama get back to me when you have arranged the $2 trillion. We are headed over a cliff because we cannot any longer get anything the country needs without paying extortion to the rich in the form of ever more tax cuts. Time to stand up. An infrastructure bank is largely useless because no one who would have to borrow can afford to under current circumstances. I don't think access to credit is the problem. As I said, if we created it, which we don't need a dime of private money to do, it would at worst be harmless because it would accomplish not much. But if we have to give hundreds of billions to corporations as the ransom to get it enacted into law, it is another absurd waste, the very reason we have a deficit problem and little benefit to the country. No hat, no cattle.

- roidubouloi

August 18, 2011 at 10:26pm

You know, I was thinking how at Baskin & Robbins "double dip" is a good thing. Maybe in his Labor Day speech the prez should bust out some Wallace Stevens: Let be be finale of seem. The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

- AaronW

August 19, 2011 at 2:17am

Economics has been a science for over 60 years with much data band testable theories. Keynesian teory is the only one that fits the available data. The present situation is analagous to astronomers observing that a footballfield-sized asteroid will hit earth in six months-- and then funding plans to hit and destroy it based only on calculations that assume F=mv, E=mc, and gravity is non-existent once you reach the stratosphere. Guaranteed disaster-- with the only solution being those making or abetting such nonsense must be replaced. That now includes any Repub, BHO, and Blue-dog type Dems. The sooner any are challenged by those understanding and advocating Keynesian economics, the better.

- drofnats1

August 19, 2011 at 8:09am