“Sometimes nothing is a real cool hand”

[girl gone mad]

“Sometimes nothing is a real cool hand”

Posted by WARREN MOSLER on July 26th, 2011

http://moslereconomics.com/2011/07/26/sometimes-nothing-is-a-real-cool-hand


Perhaps the chilling reason no bill is even beginning to emerge from Congress is raising its ugly head. Could it be that members of Congress and the President, deep down, want to see the US government go cold turkey to a balanced budget? Like taking away the drugs from an addict, might they all believe it’s for our own good and our children’s future to take away the government’s credit card now, before it’s too late?

We know they all believe that because of the deficit we are on the verge of a Greek like financial crisis. We know they all believe we need deficit reduction to prevent catastrophe. We know they all believe the government has been borrowing from China to spend like a drunken sailor, leaving the debt to our grandchildren. We know they all believe we either make the tough choices now, or soon face the undeniable consequences. And we know they all believe that even the most aggressive packages under consideration won’t be sufficient to solve the problem.

So what’s a patriotic politician to do? What solves the problem and, while there will be near term pain, minimizes the total long term pain? Yes, running out the clock and doing nothing, which is exactly what’s happening. And all the while trying to make sure your opposition gets the blame for the initial pain, while positioning yourself to take credit for the good that will surely follow. Is that not what’s happening?

They are dead wrong, of course, and, consequently, we’re all dead ducks, as the price of nothing is far higher than anything I’ve seen discussed anywhere. With the automatic fiscal stabilizers disabled (Treasury spending can’t increase in a slowdown, and in fact is forced to decrease as revenues fall) the downward acceleration of the economy from the sudden cut in government spending will be far more severe than anyone has begun to imagine. The lack of general concern for what might happen is directly evidenced by the current market complacency, allowing those properly alarmed to get their hedges in place at very attractive prices.

http://moslereconomics.com/2011/07/26/sometimes-nothing-is-a-real-cool-hand">more...

:scared:

[Angry Dragon]

1. It is just a game to them

They don't really care about the 90%.
Just pawns that get in the way of the really important people

[xchrom]

2. +1

[Ghost Dog]

3. "Patriotic politician" would appear to be an oxymoron

almost everywhere.

All most care about is access to the trough, apparently.

[PATRICK]

4. No matter the ideology.

If one accepts either stimulus created growth or severe debt reduction(hell, why NOT increase taxes if that is true at all?) their proposals are utter looney tunes. A mild stimulus only feeds the beast when it fails and the Great Sponge of Outsourcing Corporate Greed soaks up the spending. A belt tightening cutting of this and that and keeping outrageous tax benefits for the Great Sponge of Outsourcing Corporate Greed is more food for the same insatiable bellies.

The only way this has anything to do with the family budget is that the family budget has been screwed by repressed wages and raped economy by people who are defended from any notion of "shared sacrifice" much less the least intimation of criminal theft and conspiracy(treason, bribery, war against government against the middle class and truth in general).

Utterly insane except for what is the same for all the inaction and "compromised" action. The rich get richer and the poor get shafted. A modest sacrifice of some of the rapine of the Bush tax cuts you would think easily bargained away, a buffer zone of good will, patriotism and Hah! shared sacrifice, but why should they? they have so succeeded in owning these pets that their pathetic loyalty is beyond reason. The drool lathering the hands of the donors and plutocrats is the only generous outflow from the whole paid pack of sorry hounds.

In corporate news and corporate government there are certain things that are set in stone(along with the erstwhile human hearts) and certain things that are unimaginable. Therefore the government scene meltdown in any
real crisis at all because the dirty secret about money, most especially the absconded wealth is that it has very little real world value to back it up. ALL the value is in the living world, the work of minds and hands kept locked away by the power of silly illusion. So we suffer and starve in place, all 300 million of us because Scrooge Mc%uck claims to have it locked away in bonds, debts and digital numbers.

In the real world such a dominant and successful vice is a death sentence for all humanity, but it talks a good babble as long as it owns the mikes, the presses, the power.

Even the president's fifteen minutes balanced with the sweaty crazed world of the GOP rebuttal only put on a better show. In essence it is all crazy. If a blind man leads the blind will they not all fall into a pit? If only. Why do those millions who see be dragged down with them? In fact, they don't lead. they push everyone in ahead of them, screaming, pleading, bewildered, not understanding, because sane.