Commentary by Roger Erickson
Politics. Another Industry That Is
More Trouble Than It Is Worth?
Eighty years ago,
Marriner Eccles explained that issuing fiat is even more important than simply personally using it. Going further,
Warren Mosler has for years repeated the message that big finance -
the glorification of using vs generating public initiative - is an industry that is more trouble than it is worth.
The same certainly now seems to be true of most aspects of politics. Rather than continuously, and artfully, building the general welfare of the people, politics in the USA has descended into a pit of dogs bickering over the dwindling economic bones of our neglected Middle Class. Is any current political office holder demonstrating that generating statesmanship is more important than simply locally using pork-barrel politics? None that I know of!
Take this example. Please!
From the FRONT PAGE of the Sunday, Aug 2, 2013 print edition of the Washington Post comes this article, by reporter
David Fahrenthold.
"Budget battles win little [fiat] savings"*
The gist of the article is that a growing nation, despite all efforts at self-assisted suicide, is .... get this ... refusing to die! And, it might actually eke out a bit of growth! Let's hope that the orthodox economists don't notice the faint beeps still wafting from the Middle Class heart monitor. They might pull the remaining Middle Class Life Support ... to save ... WHAT?
Well, seems they're intent upon
saving fiat. Yes, it's that same old story. By self-strangulation, holding the country's economic breath 'til the nation turns blue, shooting various social feet, and having our culture
sit on it's arse in the evolutionary road ... some morons expect that we will save up enough unused public initiative to buy ourselves a breather.
You could not make this up.
If we don't just die, we may die laughing at the oafs promoting themselves as leaders! It's as though a political artery has burst and Congress has been deprived of a critical flow of common sense. Thereby leaving half the street paralyzed and Wall-ed off, while the Main side of the street attempts to drag the dead weight around as a senseless burden.
And what is the response in the cognitively deprived zone? From there, there are new calls to make the self-assisted social suicide "Bi-Partisan." That's right. Their call is for all sides to jump in and help shoot more economic feet, faster. Citizens, hear - or throw - them out! Their message is that if you see some traitor expressing personal initiative ... execute a citizens arrest and STOP THEM, before it's too late! They might use up all our public initiative?
Ok, for the sake of humor, let's assume reality is insanity, and insanity reality. So what is their beef in this Washington Post article?
They're asking why this problem not going away? Why won't our economy die? Comically - and consistent with their theme so far - they supply a common sense answer to an insane question.
"Most of the people who came in saying, ‘We’re going to change Washington,’ simply didn't understand Washington,” said Steve Bell, a longtime Republican staffer who now works at the Bipartisan Policy Center."
Is that a fact! Who says there aren't drolls in DC?
They admit they don't know how Washington works? How about how all the other things in this universe work? Might it be easier to list on one hand anything that these morons DO understand the working of?
"But even now, the government still spends a vast amount of [fiat currency]."
You don't say! You have to admit, they're really on a droll.
As an analogy, have any of these wits noticed, even now, that their own insentient corpse still exhales a vast amount of carbon dioxide? Where do they think all that carbon comes from. It doesn't just grow on trees, they know. :(
[Yes. It's heart wrenching to even have these inane discussions with US citizens. Zombie a-pork-olypse may be the ONLY thing keeping the USA alive at this point - simply for lack of any sentient motivation. Oddly, our biggest example of Aggregate Demand may be the growing need to establish nursing homes for deranged political analysts.]
Ok, I'll beat my head against their brick wall. And why is it- genius - that our nation is still expending public initiative, i.e., fiat? Why is our public spending commensurate with the size of a nation struggling to grow? "It is still so big primarily because Congress and Obama have largely failed to deal with programs such as Medicare, Social Security and food stamps."
That's right. You knew it was coming.
Their message: if there's a sociological process still functioning, kill it! If these idiots were clinicians, they'd be searching for signs of blood flow, respiration, kidney function and synaptic activity in order to stop them before the patient ran out of personal initiative. It's as though people have gone mad, and been placed in control of schools of government! Would we place the homicidally deranged in control of our Medical Schools? What is going on in this country?
"It’s that old problem of concentrated benefits with diffuse costs." What? They're letting their own looting strategy be used as a defense for self-assisted suicide of anyone left un-looted? Let's get this straight. We shouldn't let any concentrated benefit to the Middle Class cause any diffuse detriment to the 1%? Are they mocking us, along with themselves? Or just being such a black hole of density that no logic can escape the null of their irrationality field?
And, as a sign of the End Times, the Washington Post author trots out a chilling statistic. The sum of all accumulating Federal Regulations is longer than the King James Bible!!! I'm just going to let that one lie in whatever field the King decreed it be found.
Is there a moral to this story? Best one I can find is this. The moral of this Washington Post frontpage story is that David Fahrenthold and his ilk have no morals, and no brains left functioning either.
Magna dum Flawed?
ps: David Farenthold, originally of Houston, Tx, quotes one
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R., Tx). You don't suppose they're related? Surely the reporter would say, one way or another?
ps: ps: Does this article illustrate that corporate news media is also an industry that is more trouble than it is worth - at least to our nation?
* Is this is an example of the new editorial direction the Post will take, under ownership of Jeff Bezos?
