tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post6361448475527497412..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Jobs Or Deficits?Dale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-77937120018672638872010-07-12T08:18:01.597-07:002010-07-12T08:18:01.597-07:00The stimulus was too small and too high a proporti...The stimulus was too small and too high a proportion of it was devoted to magic free market tax cut fairy dust. Obviously one wants to balance the budget over the long term, deficit spending isn't inherently or interminably stimulative. But making that a priority at a time like this is economically illiterate. The urgent need to repair our crumbling infrastructure and create a new renewable energy infrastructure and economic base provides shovel-ready opportunity for recovery from this downturn directly hiring and training many of the currently unemployed, getting them spending, getting investment going again. Then, and only then, should we redirect primary attention to deficits -- and they should be handled when they are via steeply progressive taxation of income, investment, and property, a la Eisenhower and Defense spending cuts (including stealth cuts via repurposing Defense as renewable civil engineering and global water-treatment and wind-power development projects) if you ask me.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-13333807651332958992010-07-12T07:50:33.447-07:002010-07-12T07:50:33.447-07:00The problem is that there's no guarantee that ...The problem is that there's no guarantee that it will create private sector jobs. Obama's economic advisers predicted that unemployment would reach 8.5% <em>without</em> the last stimulus, and it reached 9.5% with it. One could argue, well, at least it didn't go to 12 or 13%, but how do we know it would have? Who's to say the stimulus even did anything?<br /><br />I believe that what made Clinton the greatest president since FDR is that he did balance the budget, and all that has been grotesquely unraveled in the last 10 years.adminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01020701980607126113noreply@blogger.com