tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post585853483372084038..comments2024-03-29T06:05:04.162+01:00Comments on Robert's Stochastic thoughts: Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14455788499385673507noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-73907051044388542652010-06-07T22:14:08.134+02:002010-06-07T22:14:08.134+02:00Besides the point rant: Geithner is unsurprising h...Besides the point rant: Geithner is unsurprising hyperkynsian in international negotiations because all the costs are external. The other way round, things are not so obvious for the creditor nations which might fear that their US assets get devalued through an extreme Keynsian policy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-28981144007375779012010-06-07T01:08:03.489+02:002010-06-07T01:08:03.489+02:00OK, you are ranting. That much I can confirm, for...OK, you are ranting. That much I can confirm, for you.<br /><br />Of course, digby is more concerned about words -- words are what she does. Hers is a cultural and rhetorical critique. She tries to take economics seriously, but defers to others on that, as she should.<br /><br />There's nothing wrong with her appraisal of the politics of Obama's economics. Your attempt to portray it as factually or reality-challenged falls flat. If Brad DeLong finds Obama drifting to his right, digby is certainly correct to see Obama to her right.<br /><br />Words matter a lot. If, as you say, the consensus opinion of Americans that the deficit is a major economic problem, and Keynes offers no solution, that's the outcome of the kind of successful corporate right-wing propaganda that digby criticizes and fights against. digby is absolutely correct that Obama's failure to use his gifts, his bully pulpit, or the levers of power, to fight this state of affairs more effectively is disappointing, and constrains policy (as you, yourself, say) in damaging ways.<br /><br />digby is, as they say, part of the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party, and Obama is not. That's Obama's deficiency, not digby's. The Left of the Democratic Party is allowed to exist and have opinions; we're even allowed to vote, on rare occasions when Obama isn't trying to secure an important Democratic nomination for some right-wing nutcase or opportunist. digby wants to find ways to move Obama and the Democratic Party to the Left. This puts her on the side of the angels.<br /><br />Just because someone on the Left of the Democratic Party criticizes Obama, justly, for being a corporate toady, does not mean that the health care reform wasn't very thin soup, the stimulus wasn't wholly inadequate, the financial bailout a destructive gift to the plutocracy, that unemployment isn't at 10%, or that the longest wars in American history are not continuing without any purpose or point in sight.<br /><br />If you are not dissatisfied with the performance of this President, on substantive policy grounds, you are not paying sufficient attention.Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-50504215004421267312010-06-07T00:14:44.986+02:002010-06-07T00:14:44.986+02:00This post is appalling. Typical pseudo-liberal gas...This post is appalling. Typical pseudo-liberal gasbag stuff.<br /><br />Brad DeLong:<br /><br />"...we have the Obama administration calling for a three-year spending freeze on programs unrelated to national security. We have Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Chris van Hollen calling for deeper short-term spending cuts. We have an administration experiencing difficulty finding $23 billion to prevent additional teacher layoffs, even though maintaining — no, expanding — investment in education in a recession is the no-brainiest of no-brainers."<br /><br />I guess he's delusional too?<br /><br />Paul Krugman (Bad Analysis At The Deficit Commission) too, I guess:<br /><br />"The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities worries that the Obama budget commission is already giving ammunition to the deficit crazies; it cites testimony by Carmen Reinhart claiming that gross debt, not debt owed to the public, is the right measure. I agree that this is off base....if the Obama commission feeds that false perception, right there it’s doing a lot of harm."<br /><br />You owe Digby an apology.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com