Our government has been seized by faulty right wing economic theory. Paul Krugman looks at how Europe and the US have applied that failed economic policy to the great recession in "The Path Not Taken"
Sign Bernie Sanders Petition to the Super Committee: No cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
[A] crisis brought on by deregulation becomes a reason to move even further to the right; a time of mass unemployment, instead of spurring public efforts to create jobs, becomes an era of austerity, in which government spending and social programs are slashed…[But] bailing out the banks while punishing workers is not, in fact, a recipe for prosperity.Paul Krugman, challenges the Golden Rule; those with the gold make the rules to facilitate the accumulation of additional gold by the current gold holders. Pointing to Iceland, where they "Horror of Horrors" let the failed banks, fail! That is capitalism in action, if a business fails, it disappears and so should its faulty business practices.
Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net. Where everyone else was fixated on trying to placate international investors, Iceland imposed temporary controls on the movement of capital to give itself room to maneuver.By throwing out the golden rule Iceland didn't escape the economic disaster that has encompassed the US and Europe, but they have placed the emphasis on people instead of banks. Icelanders know that corporations are not people and it is primarily the people of Iceland that constitute its most valuable national asset. We need to protect our most valuable national asset also, not corporations, the people of America.
Sign Bernie Sanders Petition to the Super Committee: No cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
