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Edited on Sat Dec-11-10 08:43 AM by DemocratSinceBirth
And I will do my best to ask it without rancor or loading it up. I don't think pissing matches advance the debate.
I have done a lot of reading on The Great Depression. I have also interviewed folks who lived through it for a college paper that I did in the late seventies. As an aside, my dad , a city boy from the Bronx, went to work for a CCC project out west when he was fifteen years old.
Two of the things Herbert Hoover did to exacerbate the recession/depression was to raise taxes and balance the budget. We now know, as Lord Keynes and almost every economist, left, right, or center has instructed us is this is the worst thing you can do in a recession because it reduces aggregate demand by taking money out of the economy. Purchases by consumers account for seventy percent of the GDP. We need to get as much money in their hands as possible. According to Paul Krugman the recession is causing the economy to lose two trillion dollars worth of aggregate demand a year. That's a lot of money and needs to be replaced to restore the status quo.
We are now at a point where the two parties can not get anything done without the cooperation of the other, I would submit that inaction favors the Republicans. IMHO, they would prefer that nothing happens, the economy remains dormant, and they can use the issue in 2012 with even more devastating effect then they did in 2010.
My questions
What happens to the economy if nothing happens because it's deprived of the stimulus it needs?
What happens to President Obama and the Democratic party in 2012 if he and them are forced to campaign in an economic environment where unemployment is still hovering around ten percent?
Most importantly, what happens to our fellow American if the economy doesn't improve?
DSB
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