US Political environment: Obama bashing seems to be the only thing US right-wingers can come up with. In the 9 months that the Republican majority in Congress has been in power they themselves have not come up with anything constructive or bi-partisan on the economy, job creation, alternative energy ,or the environment, apart from presenting some "rehashed" existing conservative programs.
US economy: the Anglo-Saxon controlled financial and popular press - Wall Street Journal, Fox News - the Sun - the Telegraph etc - most of them owned by Rupert Murdoch and his cohorts - now blame Europe for all the economic problems the US is experiencing. Basically these "pundits" are feeding the people a lot of delusions and hogwash, instead of constructive and factual journalism. But as the saying goes; "keep telling a lie and eventually people will start to believe it". This they do very well.
The Problem: the worlds economic&problems should really be pinned on supply-side economics. The supply-side theory popularized by Republican Icon Ronald Reagan and British Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, held that cutting taxes would lead to a great thrust of economic energy - and a rush of revenue into federal accounts that would replace the drain from the tax cuts themselves. Not true. The facts show that revenues as a percentage of the nation's gross domestic product declined from 19.6 percent when Reagan was inaugurated to 18.3 percent when he left Washington. Even among the influential and multi-partisan American Economics Association, which has close to 18,000 members, not more than about 10 call themselves supply-side economists.
US economy: the Anglo-Saxon controlled financial and popular press - Wall Street Journal, Fox News - the Sun - the Telegraph etc - most of them owned by Rupert Murdoch and his cohorts - now blame Europe for all the economic problems the US is experiencing. Basically these "pundits" are feeding the people a lot of delusions and hogwash, instead of constructive and factual journalism. But as the saying goes; "keep telling a lie and eventually people will start to believe it". This they do very well.
The Problem: the worlds economic&problems should really be pinned on supply-side economics. The supply-side theory popularized by Republican Icon Ronald Reagan and British Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, held that cutting taxes would lead to a great thrust of economic energy - and a rush of revenue into federal accounts that would replace the drain from the tax cuts themselves. Not true. The facts show that revenues as a percentage of the nation's gross domestic product declined from 19.6 percent when Reagan was inaugurated to 18.3 percent when he left Washington. Even among the influential and multi-partisan American Economics Association, which has close to 18,000 members, not more than about 10 call themselves supply-side economists.
In American universities there is no major department that is called "supply-side", and there is no supply-side economist at any major US university department. This is significant, because academia in the 70s was dominated by conservative economic theory, and conservative economists normally welcome all ideas that make the case against government intervention. The fact that conservatives scrutinized supply-side theory and rejected it wholesale shows that supply-side economics has very little credibility.
Following Clintons inauguration Republican predictions forecast that his tax hike included in the 1993 deficit-reduction package would bring on an economic Armageddon? ( sounds familiar?) Looking back it would seem that the 21 million jobs added to payrolls during the Clinton era showed they were very wrong on that prediction.
Supply-side economics has not worked and never will, but conservative politicians are at it again. Unfortunately, this time the risks are far greater, and again, it won't work.
EU-Digest
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