Rising Hegemon
Not surprisingly -- and never really taken to task -- are his statements like this:
The very first speaker was David Walker, the former Comptroller General of the US and a longtime member of the hype machine about the federal budget deficit. Recently, on CNBC, Walker talked longingly about debtor’s prisons in the context of “personal responsibility.” Walker was booed by several people at the Los Angeles meeting. In his speech, he talked about the inescapability of structural deficits and being “very concerned for my country and my family’s future.”
His family, of course, is wealthier than hell. We have nearly 10% unemployment and these assholes want retrenchment.
8 comments:
They're turning us into a third world country, cashing in or selling everything of value their parents and grandparents ever built, welshing on every promise their parents and grandparents ever made.
Better idea -- tax 'em like Dwight D. Eisenhower. Their tears will nourish my soul.
This was commented elsewhere as an assessment of the current economic ideology but is germane here as well (some further "edited" comments):
Face facts, the Chicago School of Economic Phrenology, the Harvard School of Business Chicanery, even the London School of Economic Charlatans are NOT sources of economic knowledge, they all ARE excellent sources of a so called economic ideology, bankrupt, dysfunctional, a public face for a hidden agenda. The World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are all fronts for this hidden agenda. A clear window upon the malfeasance of these organizations and the bankruptcy of their agenda can be found in Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine".
One Fact is there is presently no alternative economic narrative available although libraries have available most of the written record of economic thought since Adam Smith wrote "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations" which was the first economic philosophy produced. Although the language has changed since the book was written, it still provides most of the basis of economic thought that is still applicable today. The last of the classic economic philosophers was Karl Marx, writing barely a half century after Adam Smith, mostly a critique of The Wealth of Nations, but pointing out and expanding upon the sources of economic production and the consequences of failure to protect those sources (among the subjects of a prolific mind). [edit: greater value can be obtained by taking time to read either the original works or a neutral translation of foreign language works for the original intent of the author in their own words]
What exists in the public discourse is best described by the biblical story of the tower of Babel, the language is so fractured and misused as to make any ability to communicate and reason virtually impossible. Words actually fail to bridge the void between people on economic matters. Propaganda and disinformation have also had a profound role in creating this condition, these children of necessity serving political power, schooled and trained servicing the minions of marketing. The public is in great danger of being presented with a demagogue, proficient in persuasion, devious and misleading, but appearing knowledgeable and agreeable. Without the tools to clearly understand and defrock this political charlatan, political and economic power will fall easily into their hands. What is fundamentally happening at this time cannot be distinguished [edit: and probably actually IS this] from this scenario of demagoguery, the public [is] being massively misinformed and mislead by their political leaders.
The political leadership and its intellectual sustaining theories are bankrupt, there is not a narrative of a functioning economic system within their agenda. Without such, the sole outcome will be the collapse of the system and the society it supports. Great wealth, derived from this system now undergoing collapse will not itself survive the collapse, their need for a functioning system is even greater than for all others need. Try to find much Mayan nobility trucking about in recent times, should you doubt. Don't see too many Pharaohs either.
[edit: The cleanest assessment of the validity of economic theory is observing if or how accurately that theory predicts the future. If the ideology, masquerading as theory fails or is repeatedly incapable of prognostication of the effects of its operation, then that ideology can safely be abandoned even in the absence of a developed alternative, the economic damages of doing so will not be substantially worse.]
It's more intelligible listening the din of horns-- ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ at the soccer matches than anything PP and his cohorts (or their critics,above) have presented.
Sorry. Vox
Who needs a new economic narrative? The one we had before the Chicago School of Evil worked pretty well.
Have we no tumbrels? Have we no guillotines?
Did this ideological vuvuzela Walker protest this loudly about Bush's tax cuts and hideously expensive wars? Or was he strangely, conveniently silent during the economic vandalism of the Chimp Assministration?
Then he needs to STFU.
this shouldn't be bi-fucking-partisan.
pansypoo
“very concerned for my country and my family’s future.”
Comedy is when there's 10% unemployment. Tragedy is when my grandkids might not get the skiing vacation in Zermatt.
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