As sheep led to slaughter, so are we fools who perpetually adhere to fallacious economic dogma. In this instance, our shepherd is Robert Reich, writing in Salon, wherein he offers a supposedly innovative panacea that reveals itself as a static, predictable policy.
Mr. Reich identifies the fundamental issue that exacerbates America’s economic malaise and propels the recent debt ceiling debate: Two parallel universes exist in America. One universe, inhabited by normal Americans, has been caught by and cannot break a vicious economic cycle that perpetuates unemployment, declining wages, and sub-optimal spending levels. The other universe, inhabited by Washington politicians, hangs aloof, happily oblivious to structural issues and hellbent on reducing the federal budget deficit.
If only the politicians would realize that the government must become the Keynesian “spender of last resort” to repair the broken engine that is the American economy, he writes, the economic downturn can be overcome.
Far be it from my actual intention to suggest his insight of two parallel universes is wrong (inaccurate to a degree, perhaps, but not terribly wrong). However, Mr. Reich ignores a third universe: The one in which he lives.
Social Networks for YAL