It's Official: Obama is an idiot | 122 comments
What part of Keynes does (4.00 / 8)
Jared Bernstein and President Obama, for that matter, not understand? (Everything, I'd say.)
"If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of the repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is. It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing."
-John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Obama doesn't believe in Keynes (4.00 / 1)
he's a neoliberal, market guy.  That's been obvious since at least the primaries (although I'd argue before then given that he chose Joe Lieberman as his mentor).  That some folks chose to ignore it, doesn't change the fact.  This IS who Obama is and it's what he believes.  
[ Parent | ]
Yes, But (4.00 / 2)
even the market types among real economists understand that Keynes was right in the face of massive market failure.  They understand 1937.  They understand Japan's "lost decade."  That's why you had a consensus of economists saying we needed a big stimulus a year ago.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3
[ Parent | ]
True (4.00 / 1)
that's what the good economists were saying.

There's just no evidence that Obama ever listened to them.  It's always been quite clear, and I don't think just to me, that Obama believes the mainstream media narrative about the last 30 years of economic and political history, which means he has little understanding of good economics (or our real political history, for that matter).  It's like he learned everything he knows from Meet the Press - Reagan transformational, tax cuts good, entitlements bad, need to reach across the aisle, etc.  He's the ultimate VIllager, which is why the media loved him so much in 2008.  He repeated and reflected their very skewed view of the world (which is why I think everyone should refuse to vote for whatever candidate Chris Matthews likes because that's the big tell that the person is no threat whatsoever to the Village).

[ Parent | ]
i don't care what he believes (4.00 / 1)
what he does makes no sense in connection to what he says his intersts are and what his positiion as president of the u.s. would dictate.  Keynes was a market guy.  Paul Krugman is a market guy.  I don't like their policies in this context because they're ways of restoring American imperialism/dominance and I think replacing one orthodoxy wtih another is stupid, but if that's what you want to do, then that's the way to go.  

You can't have consumer capitalism without consumers!  It's such an obvious point!  so go find them somewhere, Obama.  I think they've reached the limit of how much debt American consumers can take on, they won't raise their wages and haven't for decades, and I don't think consumers in other parts of the world can take up the slack yet.

in the meantime, we have to put up with shit centre-right governments all over the world because the American elite can't get its act together and understand that public investment is SOMETIMES USEFUL.

[ Parent | ]
Jared was on Rachel last night and she took him apart (4.00 / 2)
He just prevaricated instead of answering her question Econ 101 question about the folly of tightening during recession. He evaded her by talking around it instead of answering it.

I used to think that Jared was a progressive. He should either speak the truth or resign.

[ Parent | ]
Yup, it was painfully embarrassing. (0.00 / 0)
Maddow correctly point out that virtually all serious economists see this as a big mistake in the current situation. And all Bernstein had to offer as defense was a long list of pograms where the administration wants to INCREASE spending. Not a single detail about where they want to cut something! Bernstein really came through as shockingly insane.  
[ Parent | ]
Two Things (0.00 / 0)
(1) You say this like the video clip wasn't in the body of the diary.

(2) On further reflection, I'm now thinking that this was part of a deliberate strategy, and I'm working on a diary for weekend, "Why say 'freeze' when you mean 'cap'?"

Jared's not the primary target here, but it does make him out to be more a wanker than a fool.

Rachel, OTOH, was really earning her paycheck last night.


"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent | ]
It's Official: Obama is an idiot | 122 comments
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