Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It's about damn time!
Austerity lovers of the world take note: Cutting government spending hurts the economy and it's not just the Paul Krugmans of the world that say so. merican Enterprise Institute: U.S. Austerity Measures Hurting Broader Economy:
The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, has some data out indicating that cutting government spending may be off-setting private sector growth.
Nooo, really? Do tell.
Public sector GDP — a measure of the goods and services produced by the government — has shrunk for eight consecutive quarters, according to AEI. At the same time, private sector growth has increased for 12 quarters in a row, indicating that America’s slow overall GDP growth may mostly be a result of a drop in government spending.
In just the last year, federal spending has fallen more than 3 percent, and the cuts may be countering private-sector growth, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The findings show that slashing government spending may not exactly be the best way to boost the economy, even though that’s exactly what lawmakers around the world are considering. That some of the data comes from conservative-leaning AEI adds fuel to the arguments of progressive economists, who argue that painful austerity measures don’t help economies in trouble; they hurt them.
The findings also do some to discredit conservative economists like Mitt Romney advisor Glenn Hubbard, who argue that cutting federal spending would boost a lagging economy.
Freakin' geniuses. This used to be introductory economics 101. Throw away the B.S. Austrian "austerity" economics crap and get back to real economic theory that actually works.
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My campaign for Congress as a write-in candidate in the August 28 Americans Elect Party primary for Arizona’s Fourth Congressional District (early voting has already begun) has issued this statement:
In order to be able to vote for Richard Grayson for Representative to Congress from Arizona’s Fourth Congressional District, you must:
(a) either be a registered voter in the Arizona Americans Elect party or be an independent voter or a voter with no party affiliation;
(b) have completed the reading of at least *three* of the following books:
(1) The Price of Inequality by Joseph E. Stiglitz;
(2) It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American
Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics
of Extremism by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J.
Ornstein;
(3) Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made
the Rich Richer – and Turned Its Back on the Middle
Class by Jacob S. hacker and Paul Pierson;
(4) End This Depression Now! bv Paul Krugman;
(5) Bailout: An Inside Account of Washington Abandoned
Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street by Neil
Barofksy;
(6) The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality
Crisis and What We Can Do About It by Timothy
Noah;
(7) Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress – and
a Plan to Stop It by Lawrence Lessig;
(8) The Betrayal of the American Dream by Donald L.
Bartlett and James B. Steele;
(9) Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political
Corruption, and the Hijacking of America by
Charles H. Ferguson;
(10) Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics by
Bell Hooks; and
(c) receive in advance the written permission of Richard Grayson, who can be reached at richard.grayson (at) yahoo.com.
Arizona voters who disregard these requirements and vote for Richard Grayson will be considered presumptuous and merit our utter contempt.