Economics

• “…it seems that our remedies are instinctively those which aggravate the sickness: the remedies are expressions of the sickness itself“. --Thomas Merton
• 8 New Items including:
  • How Congress Could Fix Its Budget Woes Permanently
  • Austerity is a Scam
  • Forbes’s myth of the Reagan boom
  • Paul Krugman | Global Austerity 'An Unethical Experimentation On Human Beings'
  • Is Shrinking US GDP Beginning of Double-Dip Recession Caused by Government Austerity?
  • The Myth of Living Beyond Our Means
  • Extreme Wealth vs Global Sharing
  • The Five-Step Process to Cheat the Middle Class Worker

David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest

Arend Van Dam 

How Congress Could Fix Its Budget Woes Permanently, Ellen Brown, Web of Debt / Truthdig

• We are waking up from the long night of our delusion. We do not need to follow the prevailing economic orthodoxies, which have consistently failed and are not corroborated by empirical data.  We need a permanent money supply, and the money must come from somewhere. It is the right and duty of government to provide a money supply that is adequate and sustainable.
• After a thorough analysis of statistics from dozens of countries forced to apply austerity plans by the World Bank and IMF, former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz called austerity plans a “suicide pact.” 
• Austerity is a Scam
• The Myth of Living Beyond Our Means

Austerity is a Scam, Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin, Global Research

• Crisis Legislation and Dodgy Debt Repayment Schemes
• Promissory Notes to Government Bonds
• Paul Krugman | Global Austerity 'An Unethical Experimentation On Human Beings'

Forbes’s myth of the Reagan boom, Ryan Chittum, Columbia Journalism Review

• A columnist’s misleading economic history
• The Betrayal of America's Middle Class Was a Choice, Not an Accident
• Paul Krugman | Global Austerity 'An Unethical Experimentation On Human Beings'

Paul Krugman | Global Austerity 'An Unethical Experimentation On Human Beings' Bonnie Kavoussi,  Huffington Post 

• Several European countries -- including Great Britain, Greece, Spain and Italy -- have slashed their budgets in recent years. Those countries have seen high unemployment rates and stagnant economies.
• The U.S. has also pursued austerity, albeit to a smaller extent. The U.S. government has cut 719,000 jobs since President Barack Obama took office. And the unemployment rate still is far higher than before the recession.
• Paul Krugman: Austerity Is So Wrong!

Is Shrinking US GDP Beginning of Double-Dip Recession Caused by Government Austerity? Jack Rasmus, Jon Queally, Martin Hutchinson, It's Our Economy

• Below are three commentaries on what the shrinking GDP in the last quarter means.  Time will tell as to whether this is the beginning of a double-dip recession.
• Paul Krugman: Austerity Is So Wrong!

The Myth of Living Beyond Our Means, Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

• The richest 1 percent now own more than 35 percent of all of the nation’s household wealth, and 38 percent of the nation’s financial assets – including stocks and pension funds. The richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million of us put together. 6 Walmart heirs have more wealth than bottom 33 million American families combined. So why are we even contemplating cutting programs the middle class and poor depend on, and raising raising their taxes?
• The GOP’s 1 Trillion Dollar Lie
• Is Our Future Going to Be Keeping Rich People Happy in a Servant Economy? 

Extreme Wealth vs Global Sharing,  Rajesh Makwana, Counter Currents

• Campaigners have long proposed measures to reduce extreme inequality, but policymakers remain fixated on an economic model that threatens to undermine the fabric of society. When will the political elite heed the growing demands for redistribution that are being voiced in countless reports, books and public protests? 
• It's Our Economy
• Five Facts About America's Pathological Wealth Distribution

The Five-Step Process to Cheat the Middle Class Worker, Paul Buchheit, Common Dreams

• We're hanging on by the frazzled thread of debt that indentures us to the rich and makes it harder and harder to fight back against the theft of our middle-class wealth. As we struggle to support ourselves, the super-rich remain on the take, driving us ever closer to the status of most wealth-unequal country in the world.
• Is Our Future Going to Be Keeping Rich People Happy in a Servant Economy? 

Pro Labor Alliance