{"id":23364,"date":"2016-11-23T08:29:45","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T13:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=23364"},"modified":"2016-11-23T09:16:46","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T14:16:46","slug":"bill-black-hillarys-threat-to-wage-continuous-war-on-the-working-class-via-austerity-proved-fatal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2016\/11\/23\/bill-black-hillarys-threat-to-wage-continuous-war-on-the-working-class-via-austerity-proved-fatal\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Black: Hillary\u2019s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Economic Perspectives<\/em> has the fabulous article Hillary\u2019s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal<\/a> by William K Black. The article was republished on Naked Capitalism<\/em> as Bill Black: Hillary\u2019s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is a great explanation of what my Politics Blog is largely about. It explains why I am so adamantly opposed to Hillary Clinton and so disappointed by Barack Obama. It explains why I have come to realize just how bad Bill Clinton’s time in office was for this country.<\/p>\n

It is hard to select a few excerpts from the article to give you the gist, but the following is my feeble attempt.<\/p>\n

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Here is the excerpt I should have chosen first.<\/p>\n

\nTimothy Geithner, a proponent of austerity, is famous for remarking that he only took only one economics class \u2013 and did not understand it. In the same review of Geithner\u2019s book by Krugman that I have been quoting, Krugman gives a concise summary of Geithner\u2019s repeated lies about his supposed support for a larger stimulus. Jacob Lew, the Rubinite who Obama chose as Geithner\u2019s successor as Treasury Secretary, was also trained as a lawyer and is equally fanatic in favoring austerity. In 2009, no one with any credibility in economics within the Obama administration could serve as an effective spokesperson for [against?] austerity as the ideal response to the Great Recession.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nBut Romer, Summers, and Bernstein experienced the same frustration as 2009 proceeded. The problem was not simply the Rubinites\u2019 fervor for the self-inflicted wound of austerity \u2013 the fundamental problem was President Obama. Obama\u2019s administration was littered with Rubinites because Obama was a New Democrat who believed that Rubin\u2019s love of austerity and trade deals was an excellent policy. Of course, he had campaigned on the opposite policy positions, but that was simply political and Obama promptly abandoned those campaign promises. Fiscal stimulus ceased to be an administration priority as soon as the stimulus bill was enacted. Romer and Summers recognized the obvious and soon made clear that they were leaving. Bernstein retained Biden\u2019s support, but he was frozen out of influence on administration fiscal policies by the Rubinites.
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\nFinal Cautions<\/p>\n

Each of the economists speaking on these subjects in Kilkenny opposed Trumps election and believe it will harm the public. Fiscal stimulus is critical, but it is only one element of macroeconomics and no one was comfortable with Trump\u2019s long-term control of the economy. I opined, for example, that Trump will create an exceptionally criminogenic environment that will produce epidemics of control fraud. The challenge for progressive Democrats and independents is to break with the New Democrats\u2019 dogmas. Neither America nor the Democratic Party can continue to bear the terrible cost of this unforced error of economics, politics, and basic humanity. I fear that the professional Democrats assigned the task of re-winning the support of the white working class do not even have ending the New Democrats\u2019 addiction to austerity on their radar. They are probably still forbidden to read Tom Frank.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This information in this article is exactly why I feature a picture on my Facebook page of L. Randall Wray’s book Modern Money Theory: A Primer on Macroeconomics for Sovereign Monetary Systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>

Image from my Facebook page<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Economic Perspectives has the fabulous article Hillary\u2019s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal by William K Black. The article was republished on Naked Capitalism as Bill Black: Hillary\u2019s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal. This is a great explanation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23364"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23368,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23364\/revisions\/23368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}