IMF Debunks Austerity.
By Thom Hartmann A...
Extreme inequality is dragging down our economy. According to a new discussion paper from the International Monetary Fund, countries with a large wealth divide have less economic growth than nations with more evenly distributed incomes. In their paper, the IMF backed Keynesian economist Joseph Stiglitz, and the organization warned that, “inequality can also make growth more volatile, and create the unstable conditions for a sudden slowdown in GDP growth.”
In other words, we can't have long-term, stable economic growth when the system is rigged to benefit those at the top. In fact, the IMF paper flat out dismissed right-wing talking points about so-called “wealth distribution” as self-defeating. The anti-poverty charity organization Oxfam cheered this IMF report, and said, “The IMF has debunked the old myth that redistribution is bad for growth and demolished the case for austerity. That redistribution efforts – essential to fight inequality – are good for growth is a welcome finding. Low tax and low public spending are clearly no the route to prosperity.”
As we've been saying all along, no nation, in the history of the world, has ever cut their way to prosperity. It's time to put an end to Republican austerity measures, and start investing in our nation with stronger social programs, new infrastructure, and good-paying American jobs.
Comments
#2
If a stimulus program dumps $ into the paper system (stock market, finance, insurance) which sits on piles and piles of money, we have shot ourselves in the foot. That was what got us in trouble in the first place, remember? The same $ in the hands of those who will buy real stuff would bring back the real economy if we stop taxpayer subsidizing of corporate transfer of factories overseas and set up reasonable import taxes.
#3
I have $1.78 left and no gas.
#4
Would you accept bitcoins? ;-} I know...I've heard this quite a lot lately from people approaching me from various places...filling stations, shopping center parking lots, etc. What really gets me though is the woman sitting down at the entrance of a grocery store with her little children. One other woman entering the store, as I was leaving the store, spoke to the sitting woman and said "shouldn't your kids be in school?".
#5
And austerity is what the west (and Europe) wants to impose on the Ukraine. But Russia upset the schemers by giving the Ukraine big Rubles...with no austerity attached. This really ticked off the greedy schemers and so they instigated and fomented internal dissent in the Ukraine....just as they have done in other countries. The west overthrows other "democracies" because they can't control them. Oh, won't you be my puppet? Seig Heil! And now the US puppet masters are using asinine hypocritical rhetoric condemning Russia for attempting to do the exact same thing that the US has done so many times before...invade and impose their will, and steal natural resources from other countries. I don't blame Russia for worrying about US/European hegemony. The Ukraine has a lot of natural resources and the capitalist pigs want to control it all. If Russia sent in people and money to foment unrest and an and "internal" revolution and overthrow of Mexico or Canada or even any of the Central or South American countries the US would be sending in their troops to "stabilize" things as well.
#6
As of 2 hours ago:
Quote Washingon Times:"The United States has ordered a dozen F-16 fighter gets to Poland and a guided-missile destroyer to the Black Sea in moves that are being billed as “scheduled” deployments — but that nonetheless come amid heightening tensions in the region, from Russia-Crimea relations."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/6/us-tasks-navy-destroyer-b...
#7
If China ever imposed sanctions on the US, I think the US economy would sink to the bottom of the Black Sea.
#8
Austerity, where?? America is going into debt a trillion dollars a year. Trillion with a "T" that is not Austerity. So if the Republicans get there way and knock that down to 1 or 2 hundred billion you are still a long way from austerity.
You have a progessive tax system that favors low income workers fairly well already don't you. What is it the left wants. If you make more you are going to have more what is wrong with that. Thats what drives people to make more. Join a Omish colony if you want everyone the same. The Hutterite colonies in Canada are always looking for new blood. Just think everyone gets the same house, food and they all work the same amount. Perfect for most Dems by the way you all talk. Then you can leave the rest of us to better ourselves in the free market system. its a win win
#9
Bitcoins sounds like the old way of authenticating money with the teeth.
#10
Austerity is as asinine as was the invasion of Iraq. Neither helped anyone,did the country any good,and would make this country a bigger laughing stock than we have shamelessly already become.
#11
Kend, your comments are laughable. You wear your ignorance on your sleeve. Progressive tax system? Buffett pays about17%, his secretary makes 35,000 and pays 33%. His comments about the tax system - 'There's something wrong here.'. Wake up, Kend.
#12
In the extreme, what if one person had all the money on earth. It would, of course, be worthless. And that's rather what we are seeing today. Even the great hero of the US right, Vladimir Putin, is a g-damned billionaire.
#13
Game over shut down the FED Families system Get rid of fractional reserve banking that the swidlers used to become so fillthy rich rewrite currency laws.each country disinfected lol hands out new money after banksters craft is rewriten. No bond system.People Power should produce surplus New money for the world. The money cartel has bankrupt 100 's of millions of hard working people over the centuries.Their Turn proof they 're war criminals is centuries old and all around this millennium United We Stand still true right ?5000 Hospitals or 1000 aircraftcarriers worth of wealth will be handed over in interest in the next ten years alone. Rothschild has done this for centuries to whole countries May WE call for a Major Write down for banksters Forgive the DEBT
World trade center event 911 2 Jets 3 buildings lest we forget
#14
Kend, doing your impersonation of a dimskill again.
That's sure the problem alright, we don't make anything anymore. Manufacturing is gone from here but not from quasi socialist societies like France and Germany.
The debt was run up by the previous Republican administration in a willful attempt to bankrupt government to force austerity and privatization, because when democratic government recedes into the vaccum steps big business which then becomes the government, for all intents and purposes. They, then, control and dominate society with no accountability to the public.
Hutterites and Omish (and the Amish too) are weird religious cults that not only want equality of entitlement but also sameness and uniformity for their own sakes - or, because to distinguish oneself in any way is considered, by them, immodesty or "hochmut". Our libertinism and creativity couldn't handle that. We prefer the hippy commune.
#15
The IMF is who's been forcing austerity on everybody.
#16
Yes, It's time to put an end to Republican austerity measures, and start investing in our nation.
Anyone have ideas as to how we do that?
#17
HisLowness: I think Mr. Guillotine had a pretty good idea once. Maybe we need to do it again!
#18
Leighmf: Now those were the good old days where money was real money...coins made of gold...malleable to the tooth but certainly not as malleable in value as is printing up funny money whenever someone is so inclined. And, for sure, gold is a lot harder to steal, by banks or hackers, than are more ephemeral forms of wealth. It's kind of funny that all those bitcoins got ripped off by hackers and that some guy threw away a hard drive with millions of dollars worth of bitcoin. Wanna see a bit coin?
dkd8334$%@nehw'aK!kk`1fekdk;sk_kdkels'"'5kd838dn8wrfjd98haherfhifdvr98u98re4uuea#&$05827#&#$95rghhnzdfhh4+~!arhhvn"?zlhfgh67$&$*$#&(^(
There, now wasn't that fun? Bite into that, if you can, here today, poof!, gone tomorrow!
By the way, anyone hear about the girl scouts getting ripped off by counterfeiters? Someone went around buying a box of girl scout cookies and passed counterfeit $50 bills getting legitimate change in return. And now the girl scouts are out by several thousand dollars.
I thought about that just today as I handed a $50 bill to the restaurant cashier who stared at it for some awkwardly lengthy time...then took it to the back to consult with another person. I guess they determined it was legit because they finally came back and gave me change. It better not be counterfeit!...I just got it from the bank! But then nothing surprises me much about the banks anymore. Maybe I'll switch to gold so I can watch them bite down on a chunk.
#19
HisLowness, we have to build a movement and that's just what lefties don't do. Lefties only talk to other lefties and turn their nose up at or self righteously reject everyone that doesn't already agree with them.
Often times lefty movements, always small and marginal, are just composed of a few students and their professors giving an intellectually elitist quality to it all. They make little or no effort to reach the blue collar American and are thus rightly called "elitist" and spurned by them. Then a Bill O'Reilly type who speaks the blue collar worker's language comes along and they join the Republican Party.
The righties know just how to build a movement, fraudulent astroturf that it may ultimately be, they have the best PR and marketing experts.
I think we just have to do the oftimes hard, tedious and unglammorous leg work of reaching people. What would be best would be to make a very public, perhaps theatrical, gesture toward an issue or problem that everybody can get with. That was what was Occupy's initial power. It had everybody's support because it spoke for everybody. Then the lefty intellectuals couldn't help but try to make it their wet dream come true so, of course, they ended up alone, in the corner, wankering again. They got academic, self important and irrelevant to anything the blue collar worker was concerned about or, at least, they weren't trying to speak to the worker just at them.
The intellectuals shouldn't be leading a workers' movement, anyway, it should be leaderless - which means it will be lead by the concerns most actual to most people - or should be led by the blue collar workers themselves.
#20
Bob if Mr Buffett took out as much money as his secretary he would pay the same taxes. Like a lot of wealthy people he doesn't need much take home money as his company pays for everything. only wage earners pay high personal taxes but mr Buffett pays all his taxes through his company. I am a wake enough to understand the tax codes.
#21
It's fun to watch people do good business and succeed with lots of mutual profit. It's painful to watch people cut off their own nose to spite their face. That is what is happening with austerity. Nothing more, nothing less. Back in the Eisenhower era when high income earners paid their fair share and our infrastructure was expanded to meet the demand of a booming economy everyone prospered. Now at the whim of a few arrogant--and unwise--industrialists we are running our infrastructure--and our population--into the ground to squeeze every drop of vital monetary blood they can without any concern for the consequences of their actions, or the long term effect of their agenda.
You cannot get blood from a rock. This paradigm cannot be sustained. In that respect it is the same gameplay as our collective environmental agenda. It is only a matter of time till this house of cards comes crashing down upon itself.
#22
Kend, I don't think that's how that works, and that doesn't really make sense. He pays 17% because of loopholes, his takehome is his income, whatever else he gets is either written off or is embezzlement.
#23
With all due respect, I don't think you're evaluating the situation accurately. Today's left, under the influence of Clinton, has done much to "divide and conquer the masses," effectively pitting the middle against the poor -- and that was a big mistake. This generation did take a wrong turn with the Clinton admin, which pulled much of the left to the right, esp. on socioeconomic issues (which define the overall quality of life in the US). We need only look at our past to understand our current economic mess. We looked at the policies and programs that were implemented from FDR to Reagan, which took the US to its height of wealth and productivity, and chose to reverse course. Look at the results. The US has fallen well behind every modern nation in virtually every respect as a result of an agenda to which we still cling. Two sets of policies have been phasing out the middle class, increasing hopeless poverty. One set involves the use of taxpayer money to ship our jobs out of the country/"free trade", creating enough pressure to slash wages and wipe out a century of labor progress. We simply don't have jobs for all who desperately need one. Clinton wiped out the welfare system; modern nations have welfare systems not only out of human decency, but because they play a vital role in protecting middle class jobs/wages while growing the economy. The left was bullied out of examining our socioeconomic agenda, merely reciting the call for job creation (as we've been doing for over 30 years now...) We need the courage to honestly, openly discuss the roles that our economic and social policies have played in our downfall.
#24
Sounds like you've been listening too much to Nugent.
#25
Ya Mark I have to agree most poeple here would do much better at a hippie commune then the Omish One. Peace and love. Peace and love. But the hippies sooner or later ran out of money. Kinda like most liberal governments.
#26
I agree with your analysis and do not see any real leader to bring on the discussions of those realities. We seem to be on a continual duplicative downward spiral with most people hurting so much they are numbed out.
#27
Mark I think we are saying the same thing. For example. My company buys my gas, lunches, diners, my car, my insurance, and basically everything So I don't have to pay myself as much. So I take very little personally exspecially here in Canada where our personal tax is high and our business taxes are low. But if you count what I pay in my business I pay at hell of lot more then 17%. Yes the loopholes help me personally but I pay one way or the other. The big savings is when my company buys something for me I am really paying for it with pre taxed personal dollars.
#28
America was tricked into hiring the so called Fedral Reserve to print the money (a subcontactor). if USA puts up a bond an iou and another then another till we have 17 trillion in debt.
Wait there has always been a better way like executive order 11110 issue green backs like Lincoln with out debt.the subcontractor wants his austerity tell the IMF to put a lean on America.if subcontractor cannot build house of cards with out tarp bail out ect.this house of cards being the printing of the money and the growth of the economy subcontractor should not be paid.Find a new subcontactor
if this were a family fortune and rothschild handled the account and lost trillions the family corp.would find a new financial advisor
#29
Aliceinwonderland ~ Don't get too wound up my friend. He probably just read the last Hightower lowdown and wants to push some buttons. Let us deny him, no? We are so better then that.
#30
Ted Nugent... are you kidding?!
I think both Mark and Branski are making valid points. However Branski, I question whether someone like Clinton is actually a "leftist" or a "liberal", since so many of his policies served the corporatist agenda. He's the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing. I shudder to think of his wife as prez, which would be just more of the same; something we can ill afford.
Perhaps we mean different things by these terms. What you call a "liberal", I consider a corporatist. And corporatist-fascists are all about "divide & conquer". - Aliceinwonderland
#31
Marc, it drives me crazy when I edit or add more to a post, only to have it bumped down past someone's reply. Sorry 'bout that. Anyway kiddo, I get your drift. And for what it's worth, I don't have a problem with Branski. I don't agree with him 100% but I believe he has an interesting point of view. His analyses and assessments are thought provoking and add something of value to our discussions. - AIW
#32
Kend, the hippies on the communes didn't need money. The ones I knew produced everything they needed on their farms. You rarely saw members in town.
There were some giant ones that had so many members they could elect their own representatives to Congress. Unfortunately, they refused to vote because they didn't want to force their will upon their neighbors.
Liberal governments don't run out of money, they tax you going in and coming out. It's the conservatives that intentionally bankrupt government so that nothing would restrain their kleptocracy.
#33
Clinton is center-right. I'm not talking about politicians, I'm talking about people's movements.
#34
Does anybody find it strange that Hartmann's entire makeup of his blog and TV program is to continually bash America? He is paid for his program by the Russian Government and I believe that is why the content of his show and blog are continually bashing our Government. He throws a little red meat out and those who are constantly angry about our country have no trouble venting their anger. Why don't you take a trip to Eastern Europe and see how great the other side lives. One of the anchors on RT, Liz Wahl, resigned from Russian Television today, over the way the management (Russian Government) tries to down play what is happening in the Ukraine and the Russian invasion of their territory, much like the USSR pulled off in Hungry in 1956 and more recently in Georgia. It gets very boring to hear the same old attacks on our country by people like AIW and Palin just to mention a couple of angry people. Why is it that Hartmann only find things to complain about and seem to ignore the positive aspects of our Nation. Hartmann provides the platform and the haters jump on it for better or for worse. Just once I would like to read something, anything of a positive nature come out of Hartmann and his shows. He makes his living, much like the hated R. Limbaugh, and always portrays himself as the righteous left, when in reality he is no different than the rest of the hate mongers out there, who make their living out of getting the crowd worked up so they can vent and tune in again tomorrow. That is why I stopped watching anything on RT, including Hartmann, who works for the Russian Government indirectly, by slamming America with a tainted twist of hatred. After reading all the comments from this blog, I must say it appears the Russian's have succeeded in doing what they pay for on RT. K.W.
#35
Oh stuff it, Ken Ware. What makes your rants so special? If you don't like Thom or his blog, nobody's holding a gun to your head. Thom working for the Russians- what have you been smoking?!! Go play patty-cake with your grandson... and bug off. - AIW
#36
Ken Ware: So you're still living in the olden days of Red Baiting and Communist witch hunting? With all that has happened in our country...overthrow of elected foreign governments, illegal invasions and murdering innocent foreign children, illegal occupations of other countries, fomenting unrest and destabilization of other countries... just to name a few things that our criminal government has done. Oh, did I mention importing drugs while pretending that they were carrying out a war against them? I'd mention the traitorous false flag operation of 9/11 that US insiders created in order to push through their goals of total control over the whole world...starting with spying on and crushing civil liberties of their own citizens...but I don't want to upset you too much. ;-} I wouldn't want to shatter your warm and fuzzy, jingoist and xenophobic, comfy little paradigm. Keep waving those little flags and it won't be the communists who bury you...it will be the master manipulators in key positions in our ruling elite that will do that! You'll be like the fool in the movie The Wicker Man. To be sacrificed so that the rich and powerful crazies can fulfill their fantasies of exclusionary greatness.
And as for Ms. Wahl...I was certainly no fan. She always seemed rather strange and out of place anyway. I'm certainly not going to miss her. Maybe she'll go on over to Fox Snooze now. I think she would fit right in with all those flunkies spouting right wing nonsense.
All governments will try to propagandize...what is so new about that? But many of the stories on RT were more than propaganda...they were the truth. And those stories about US hegemony and imperialism were so obviously the truth that it really didn't take any effort in the way of propaganda to make the US look bad. The US didn't need any help in that regard. It was just so obvious to so many of us what the US was doing...which is why RT is so popular with those of us who know when they have been screwed by the owners of right wing propaganda news networks who have a vested interest in keeping Americans dumb and uniformed of the truth.
After all of the double-crossing and two-timing schemes of US banks and corporations and right-wing news networks who outright bought power in government allowing them to financially rape the 99% out of their financial well being, you old fossils of the McCarthyism era still bend over for the capitalist pigs who have constantly screwed us? Old fools are hard to free themselves of the shackles of capitalist pig propaganda.
What has happened in the Ukraine is the result of the US and Europeans fomenting internal dissent and destabilization...right out of the game plan of CIA proxy corporations and deliberately illusive sounding named "liberal" organizations like Freedom House and International Center for Non-violent Conflict. The "non-violent" part means that, of course, we don't initially send in our troops (the non-violent part...but violence does come..and lots of other people do lose their lives). We instigate, fund, and train internal dissent to willing subjects (or bribed ones) in those countries that have a beef with the ruling regimes in those countries. We also send in mercenaries to incite violence and make it look like it came from the regime we want to overthrow.
#37
Quote noworriesbehappy comment on theguardian.com:
...the Guardian has joined in the anti-Russian hysteria with the rest of the US and European media. In fact RT is one of the very few news outlets to mention the neo-nazi Svoboda and right sector mob from Galicia. These armed gangs are a daily and existential threat to any minorities they don't like-- Russians, Jews, Hungarians, Communists etc. If you don't think Svoboda are neo-nazis just check their own website. It is a fact that these thugs led the armed insurrection that violently overthrew the elected Ukrainian government. It is also a fact that they now have posts in the unelected government that now rules much of Ukraine and receive support from hairpiece Kerry.
Why do YOU think that the vast majority of Crimean people see their Russians brothers as their saviors from these fascist elements? The Russian people have long, long memories and know from bitter experience what nazi scum are capable of.
Of course this is not the whole story and Putin is no saint, but why has all this been hidden by the mainstream western press and in particular the Guardian?
Why are the elite leaders in the west and their news outlets now supporting these self proclaimed fascists?...are we the bad guys now?I say again what I and many readers from the Guardian want are FACTS not Propaganda. We can then make our own minds up, we don't need you to do this for us Guardian. FACTS please, even the unpalatable ones. Wake up Guardian before we set up our own website.
http://discussion.theguardian.com/discussion/p/3najb
Practically the same thing happened in South Ossetia. Western eyewitnesses visiting South Ossetia spoke out in favor of the Russians who the Ossetian people welcomed as saviors against the murdering western-backed Saakashvili government in Georgia. There was some egging on and encouragement from the US as usual..something about concurrent joint naval or military exercises just preceding the Georgian attacks on S. Ossetia. And it was so funny when that young girl, a S. Ossetian, went on Fox News and thanked the Russians for helping to save them from the Georgians. Fox suddenly ran out of time as they always do in such situations where they have lost control of their right-wing propaganda. In Nov of 2008 the Georgian President Saakashvili admitted that he started the war.
So, Liz Wahl was upset over the Russian propaganda that Neo-Nazis were a large part of overthrowing the Ukrainian government?
“Democratization” and Anti-Semitism in Ukraine: When Neo-Nazi Symbols become “The New Normal”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/democratization-and-anti-semitism-in-ukrain...
And, of course, let's not forget that the US is using Al Qaida to fight our proxy wars in Syria. Al Qaida, our enemy? Al Qaida that is cutting off heads of Christians in Syria?
#38
Yes, the system is rigged and it's rigged in such a manner as to make the working class pay the bill for our own demise. A good case in point being inflated commodities prices. We have to drive to work which means indirectly we have to pay for the Koch/Rove propaganda spending which promotes their Fascism. The Kochs artificially inflate the price of oil and thus we help pay for their insane quest for more, more, more, more, more!..... and then they will just die!....... and take the planet done with them. Obviously there's no real point or rational thought process involved in the complete maddness of never being able to get enough of getting more. Our government is mandated to step in at this point, before our society and planet totally collapse. If it doesn't we need a new one.
#39
All the egg-head economists with their complicated equations have missed the most simple and effective equation of all:
employed at living wages/well-paid workers = monied consumers = long-term profit for business = strong economy = strong country
Don't forget that the wealthy/corpororations have TAKEN AND ARE HOARDING TRILLIONS from our economy. They need to be forced to bring it back--THE DOLLAR BELONGS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND ITS ECONOMY--it is a TOOL not a REWARD.
#40
The Russians are coming!
I don't equate Republicans with "America" - far from it, they must be Russian because they hate America - thus bashing them is not "bashing America". It is, in fact, quite patriotic.
#41
Definitely there is no austerity for the Pentagon, the NSA et al, or the Elite One Percent.
But the Poor have been getting austerity even before the Austerity Policy took place. Consider the Poor who are Disabled of all ages for example: I feel that surely thousands have died prematurely in the last 15 years from consistent repeated defunding of at home care giving for them. This sector of Americans has already learned what Austerity is about.
#42
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#43
For some reason Mr. Ware has always had this special contempt for Marc, Palin and me. Predictably, now that he's back from his long sabbatical, he's at it again with his stupid tirades and petty little jabs, accusing Thom and us of "bashing America" ad nauseam... What I find especially ironic is how this man will post a long-winded, angry tirade about "people like AIW and Palin just to mention a couple of angry people". Apparently Mr. Ware thinks he's the only one entitled to that emotion. What I'd like to know is, if Mr. Ware finds these discussions so boring, why does he keep coming back for more? Meanwhile we are subjected to the same old chest-thumping monologues and Cold War regressions we've heard repeatedly over the past year & a half... (Talk about boring!) This is because Ken Ware is just a troll. It's a common tactic trolls use to divert the dialogue away from the subject at hand. Suddenly we find our discussion caught up in a juvenile pissing contest. Because that's all trolling is about: power and control (or "con-troll"... tsk!) It really is pathetic.
Grow up, K.W. Aren't you too old to be playing these games? Remember, you're a grandfather now! Tsk tsk tsk. - Aliceinwonderland
#44
Just to refresh your memory, Ken, here's a little something I harvested from the terms & conditions of this blog, addressed to all who wish to participate here:
"Trolling is to deliberately post derogatory or inflammatory comments in order to bait other guests into angrily responding. They may also focus on changing the subject or diluting the discussion with content-poor posts, or focus on only one topic and point of view whatever the discussion. The troll has no intention of taking part in discussions, save to try and ruin the quality of the community for others. Trolls may also adopt sock puppets - alternative identities - to further their aims. Trolls will be banned."
Many of us like to vent about issues we're passionate about; we've had plenty of disagreements, and even gotten on each other's nerves from time to time! But I've observed no one else posting here who makes a habit of picking fights with other bloggers out of nothing, after a "bad hair day" or whatever. Get over it, Ken! - AIW
#45
FIRST, there are two things wrong with the IMF "finding".
a. It was NEVER 'lost'! Cutting out/cutting back the things that STRENGTHEN one's nation just doesn't make sense, and people knew and proved it already. Therefore, the counterproductive nature of AUSTERITY doesn't need the 'found' in a finding!
b. It is just too bizarre that the IMF made this finding, and something is wrong about this! Is anybody asking 'WHY IN THE WORLD HAS THE IMF NOW PUT OUT INFORMATION LIKE THIS -- AN ACT THAT IS TOTALLY OUT OF CHARACTER WITH THE IMF'S USUAL MODUS OPERANDI?' (Or is there something I don't know in the mix here, like maybe, the IMF regularly says one thing and does another? If I'm missing IMF past methods of doing things, I seek to be educated.)
SECOND, this Austerity weapon against The People is a neo-liberal action in support of the Elite. Austerity (and resulting Privatization that follows it) isn't just a Republican creation. The Democratic Party has been taken over by the DLC Clintonites and now Corporatist Ideals are favored by the Dems. (These DLCers have controlled the Dem Party election year purse strings for years and the result has been a concerted blocking of the party's progressive candidates, and, instead, the embrace of -- and campaign funding for -- mostly those Dem Party candidates with the willingness to accept the corporatist game plan.
In any event, SOMETHING is wrong with this picture where the IMF makes a finding that contradicts its own longtime methods of squeezing the Poorest in all nations. I hope some investigator digs deeper to find out what this is about.
#46
i know what you mean, Nora. Smells kinda fishy, doesn't it! Since when was the IMF so concerned about the counter-productive nature of austerity?! Even when tyrants do something right, it's generally for the wrong reasons. Or it's some sort of false pretense they're hiding behind. - AIW
#47
We don't need to be the Big Brother Thought Police or effect some cliquish tyrranny by personal popularity. If Ken wants to be obnoxious, especially if that's his honest opinion he's expounding, he has a right. We don't have to like it - or him, for that matter - and we can say so but this blog is for everybody but the intentionally abusive and destructive.
#48
I agree, Mark. I've no more desire than you have to police this blog. But Ken has repeatedly singled me out, and Palin and Mark, with his bullying, inflammatory remarks, which I perceive to be intentionally abusive and disruptive, beyond the rights of any of us as participants here. I for one am tired of it. This man can spout off to his heart's content, no matter how repugnant or obnoxious his diatribes. But when Mr. Ware resorts to unprovoked personal attacks, that's where I draw the line.
During the months of Ken's absence, I couldn't help noticing how much better the dynamics were on this blog, for the most part. When it comes to politial discussions, occasional conflicts are inevitable, and people will push each other's buttons from time to time. It goes with the territory. But we all deserve a safe space here to express opinions and ideas without subjecting ourselves to aggressively hostile, belittling comments from bullies like Ken Ware. Enough already! - AIW
#49
Don't be silly, Ken! Hartmann is clearly patriotic, he dislikes only 1% of America (and maybe some of their wannabes and lackeys). He thinks there's a lot wrong with how things are done here (thanks largely to that 1%) and tries to get them done better and that's patriotic. Trying to improve your country is nothing but patriotic.
The 1% are the America haters. Don't you know that that's why we have "globalization"? The rich have no loyalty to America. For a dollar they'll move everything to China, take all their money with them - without paying any of their taxes on it - and the only thing they'll leave us is their toxic waste dumps - for us to clean up.
What you're doing, Ken, is dangerously close to fascism. Thom has his own weird, academic definition of "fascism" but to most people in the world it just means "Naziism". When you start calling people unpatriotic and traitorous for being dissidents that's what you're doing.
#50
The Russian are coming! Everyone please to get from street!
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"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
From Cracking the Code:
"In Cracking the Code, Thom Hartmann, America’s most popular, informed, and articulate progressive talk show host and political analyst, tells us what makes humans vulnerable to unscrupulous propagandists and what we can do about it. It is essential reading for all Americans who are fed up with right-wing extremists manipulating our minds and politics to promote agendas contrary to our core values and interests."
From Screwed:
"I think many of us recognize that for all but the wealthiest, life in America is getting increasingly hard. Screwed explores why, showing how this is no accidental process, but rather the product of conscious political choices, choices we can change with enough courage and commitment. Like all of Thom’s great work, it helps show us the way forward."
Austerity, The history of a Dangerous idea
They've known this since 1943 when the US had full employment.