Paul Krugman Blog- Trying To Unwarp The Debate

[n2doc]

I visited Zuccotti Park yesterday. Michael Moore gave a short speech, transmitted by the human microphone. I gather that right-wingers are claiming that OWS is anti-Semitic; someone forgot to tell the excellent Klezmer band.

Overall, what struck me was how non-threatening the thing is: a modest-sized, good-natured crowd, mostly young (it was a cold and windy evening) but with plenty of middle-aged people there, not all that scruffy. Hardly the sort of thing that one would expect to shake up the whole national debate. Yet it has — which can only mean one thing: the emperor was naked, and all it took was one honest voice to point it out.

As for how the emperor got that naked: read Ari Berman’s article on the austerity class, and its dominance in Washington. It’s about:

a central paradox in American politics over the past two years: how, in the midst of a massive unemployment crisis—when it’s painfully obvious that not enough jobs are being created and the public overwhelmingly wants policy-makers to focus on creating them—did the deficit emerge as the most pressing issue in the country? And why, when the global evidence clearly indicates that austerity measures will raise unemployment and hinder, not accelerate, growth, do advocates of austerity retain such distinction today?

An explanation can be found in the prominence of an influential and aggressive austerity class—an allegedly centrist coalition of politicians, wonks and pundits who are considered indisputably wise custodians of US economic policy.


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http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/trying-to-unwarp-the-debate/

[chill_wind]

1. K & R.

>a central paradox in American politics over the past two years: how, in the midst of a massive unemployment crisis—when it’s painfully obvious that not enough jobs are being created and the public overwhelmingly wants policy-makers to focus on creating them—did the deficit emerge as the most pressing issue in the country?<

Can't be overstated enough. Disastrous.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Please, the "austerity class" is intent on austerity only for the 99%.

There's no secret to what they're doing, there's no mystery to why they started pointing fingers at little people and our Medicare and our schools and roads and food stamps and saying, "OMG we can't afford you little people, look how greedy you are!!" The only mystery is why teabaggy types buy it.

[TomClash]

3. Krugman's right - Ari Berman's article was excellent

http://www.thenation.com/article/164073/how-austerity-class-rules-washington