I, even prior to the current crisis in financial markets, was fairly bearish on the long-term health of America's finances. Debt at every level of our society is high (even corporate debt, thought to be almost nil, may be substantial due to the mis-rating we've seen in situations like Bear Stearns'), and our lender of last resort is frequently another country. I've written before on the risks to the middle and lower classes from our great experiments of globalization and the service economy. Politically, these and other actions have made us vulnerable in a way we haven't been for a very long time.
Now comes the crisis, and we wonder what the new president will do (we know what the old one will do, proclaim confidence and expect the economy to fall in line, doling out small ineffective gifts along the way to keep us quiet). The discussion we need to be having about the ultimate responsibility of government vs. private enterprise in keeping the nation strong isn't happening, it probably won't, and all three candidates are quite unclear as to how we will pull this all back in.
Neither of our Democratic hopefuls have filled me with confidence that they possess the "big idea," the one that's going to cure what ails us. More disturbing is the admission by Sen. McCain that he knows little about the economy (space for a brief rant here: why do we care so much about the vice presidential nominee? Yes, it's important to know who might take over in case of presidential trouble, but I would rather find out who will have the president's ear on important issues. The Bush-Cheney relationship is unprecedented, but, even with that, we had no idea that neocons and Rice were going to take over our defense planning and, well, whomever was going to plan our economy. Don't tell me who will be second in command, and ignored; tell me who the new president will actually be listening to.).
So read Jared Bernstein's post at American Prospect, and become as afraid as I am that this kind of thinking comes from the "fiscally responsible" party.
Now comes the crisis, and we wonder what the new president will do (we know what the old one will do, proclaim confidence and expect the economy to fall in line, doling out small ineffective gifts along the way to keep us quiet). The discussion we need to be having about the ultimate responsibility of government vs. private enterprise in keeping the nation strong isn't happening, it probably won't, and all three candidates are quite unclear as to how we will pull this all back in.
Neither of our Democratic hopefuls have filled me with confidence that they possess the "big idea," the one that's going to cure what ails us. More disturbing is the admission by Sen. McCain that he knows little about the economy (space for a brief rant here: why do we care so much about the vice presidential nominee? Yes, it's important to know who might take over in case of presidential trouble, but I would rather find out who will have the president's ear on important issues. The Bush-Cheney relationship is unprecedented, but, even with that, we had no idea that neocons and Rice were going to take over our defense planning and, well, whomever was going to plan our economy. Don't tell me who will be second in command, and ignored; tell me who the new president will actually be listening to.).
So read Jared Bernstein's post at American Prospect, and become as afraid as I am that this kind of thinking comes from the "fiscally responsible" party.
No comments:
Post a Comment