Truth-Out is carrying the piece Voluntary Austerity: All Pain, No Gain by Paul Krugman.

But the point is that even cheap-money countries facing no pressure either from the market or from external forces to engage in immediate austerity are nonetheless engaged in sharp fiscal contraction.

This is taking place in an environment in which the private sector is still deleveraging ferociously from the debt binge of the previous decade, so we’re creating a situation in which both the private sector and the public sector are trying to slash spending relative to income. And, whaddya know, the world economy is sputtering.

The truly amazing thing is that this calamitous error is not, for the most part, the result of special interests or an unwillingness to make hard choices. On the contrary, it’s being driven by Very Serious People who pride themselves on their willingness to make hard choices (which, naturally, involve inflicting pain on other people). In fact, I’d argue that the desire to make hard choices, or at least to be seen as doing so, is the reason these Very Serious People chose to ignore the extensive and, we now know, completely accurate warnings from some economists about what would happen if they gave in to their austerity obsession.

Do you consider yourself to be a very serious person?  Well, cut that out. You are wrecking the economy.

Part of the problem is that President Obama ceded control of the economics debate, so that even if he knows better, he cannot propose what needs to be done to get the economy going again.  Perhaps only Mitt Romney can screw things up badly enough so that people will finally wake up.

This video was posted on YouTube with the following introduction:

What does environmental devastation actually look like? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project — and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat.

For almost twenty years, Garth’s photography of threatened wilderness regions, devastation, and the impacts on indigenous peoples, has appeared in the world’s leading publications. His recent images from the boreal region of Canada have helped lead to significant victories and large new protected areas in the Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Ontario. Garth’s major touring exhibit on the Tar Sands premiered on Los Angeles in 2011 and recently appeared in New York. Garth is a Fellow of the International League Of Conservation Photographers

Filmed at TEDxVictoria on November 19 2011

Along with this video, you might want to look at the story and photo album These Pictures May Give You Nightmares About The Canada Oil Sands.

At the end of the above slide show, there is a link to the article This is the hot new way they’re extracting more oil from the sands than anyone imagined. This highlights the other method of tar sands extraction mentioned in the video as less ugly, but more damaging.

A few years ago, I was looking at the opportunity of investing in Canadian tar sands projects. The investment looked overpriced to me, so I did not invest. I probably would have made a fortune, but now at least my conscience is clear.

Thanks to CindyM for sending the email that led to this post.