An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009
"Hurt, Frightened and Very Angry:" Risk of Social Unrest Rising, Says FT's Martin Wolf
Protesters in the streets of London at today's G20 meeting and the silent, irate majority elsewhere have every reason to be "hurt, frightened and very angry," says Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator for The Financial Times.
As a result, "people in the developed world suddenly feel completely out of control for first time in 70-80 years," he continues. "Huge forces are now unleashed."
These forces include the kind of social unrest evident in London and more recently in emerging economies; similar disturbances are very possible in America too, he says.
This is what happens when governments are not allowed to sustain economies because of belief systems and because of ideology. The "free market fundamentalists" should be the first to go if angry mobs are rational enough to know who to blame, but they won't be, meaning that anyone is at risk of being swept up in social chaos disorder when it begins to spiral out of control.
stimulus is welfare and welfare is stimulus. it's not so bad when food stamps create 2 bucks for every one buck doled out.
ReplyDeletewhat i meant is that the Europeans are in favor of welfare over stimulus.
ReplyDeletefurther what i meant is the Europeans ( and some USA ) need to realize that some forms of "welfare" are more stimulating that others - like food stamps which where pointed out at this here blog to produce more return than other forms of stimulus.
Stimulus is not welfare yes, but providing stimulus money to preexisting welfare programs is a good idea if the multiplication factor is bigger
Giving people money who are capable of working but not requiring them to work simply raises incomes without a concomittant increase in output and that's no good. The government would be better of offering a job of some sort. (There's lots of stuff that needs to be done.)
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, people who are sick or unable to work for whatever reason should be helped. That's my belief.