Open Left

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.  

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by: BDB @ Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 05:54:07 AM CST

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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

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 05:59:56 AM CST

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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).

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by: BDB @ Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 07:27:02 AM CST

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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.

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by: dr anonymous @ Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 21:29:30 PM CST

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