tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post1772337631017775318..comments2024-03-19T11:28:58.168-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: Economies and electionsDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-91671910280088695752012-05-11T19:03:36.852-04:002012-05-11T19:03:36.852-04:00Ultimately, the relationship between voters and
po...Ultimately, the relationship between voters and<br />politicians has gone sour because they are focused<br />on different goals. Voters are interested in a society<br />that works, <b>while politicians are focused on making government work</b>.<br /><br />From the perspective of voters, the major political<br />divide in the nation is between <b>mainstream<br />Americans</b> and <b>the Political Class</b>. Politicians would<br />prefer to ignore that divide and focus on whether <br />DC Republicans or DC Democrats should run the<br />club for the next couple of years.<br /><br />In many troubled relationships, both sides deserve<br />some of the blame. But the United States is a nation<br />founded on the belief<b> that governments gain their<br />legitimacy only from the consent of the governed</b>. In<br />the relationship between the people and the <br />Political Class, <b>that means the voters are right and<br />the politicians need to changeM\</b>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-863322297684883702012-05-09T11:08:14.868-04:002012-05-09T11:08:14.868-04:00This is a translation of an article in today's...This is a translation of an article in today's SPIEGEL.<br />You might find it interesting.<br /><br />Ungovernable Greece: Welcome to Weimar<br /><br />http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl<br />=de&u=http://forum.spiegel.de/f22/unregierbares-griechenland-willkommen-weimar-60597.html<br />&ei=uYeqT_-NFKWf6AHb4NSsBA&sa=X&oi<br />=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=<br />0CCoQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3DWillkommen<br />%2Bin%2BWeimar%2Bspiegel%26hl%3Den%26client%<br />3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26prmd%3DimvnsfdAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-30071661738836512502012-05-07T19:03:39.613-04:002012-05-07T19:03:39.613-04:00The reflection on Weimar quite interesting. I woul...The reflection on Weimar quite interesting. I would like to know how Chicago politics has influenced Obama - he was the CHANGE candidate so-called, but behaved like a ward boss instead of a President - Does this jive at all? Ward Bosses don't seek to alter he status quo, they seek to maintain their own positions - please all comers where possible - which is exactly what Obama has been doing. There is now also another parallel - the Republicans are fascist swine without gangs of thugs (yet) to cow the majority.RUNNINGDOGLACKEYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14443783129580809991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-9247913270542508522012-05-06T15:30:18.051-04:002012-05-06T15:30:18.051-04:00Professor
Many thanks.
Wonderful thumbnail ske...Professor <br /><br />Many thanks. <br /><br />Wonderful thumbnail sketch of the German situation, and incidental US implications re reparations, in early 30s.<br /><br />All the best,<br />GMBozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-50975145881263397462012-05-06T10:39:52.211-04:002012-05-06T10:39:52.211-04:00Professor,
When Obama appointed Wall Street's ...Professor,<br />When Obama appointed Wall Street's own to Treasury and other key posts, we should have known he then couldn't revise our economic future with that crew. The big banks would not be faulted or broken up, public infrastructure and education would be gutted, and the Wall Street bailouts would be paid for by taxpayers share of the pie. <br />It's a jobless recovery of the private sector precisely because the tax code give business exemptions for "capital equipment", which has replaced workers, increased productivity, and left us with a permanent unemployed class, the "structural unemployment" the pundits are loath to admit is now a permanent condition. (Machines don't pay Social Security).<br />When Obama "compromised" on extending the Bush tax cuts, rather than taking the opportunity in 2009, with a Democratic majority, to revoke them, we should have known progressive hopes were doomed.<br />The real question is, "why did we not see this then"? Were we reluctant to criticize the first Black president for fear of appearing to be part of the thinly-veiled racism of much of the fanatical GOP/redneck Obama opposition?? <br /><br />Your analogy to Nazi Germany may not be so far-fetched; Stephanson's book INTREPID shows how 1930's US "isolationism" and "appeasement" was more about ensuring Germany's reparations payments to Wall Street than morality or diplomacy, and IN THE GARDEN OF THE BEASTS, also shows the complicity of Wall Street and the financial elite in Hitler's rise to power and the subversion of it's emerging democracy.<br /><br />If Romney wins, the Wall Street right will have won total victory, and we will have become a two-class oligarchy. We can then kiss Social Security and most other "middle-class" safety nets goodbye.Bob in NCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-77244536105001133522012-05-05T11:39:12.159-04:002012-05-05T11:39:12.159-04:00You are mostly right (ie correct :-)) in your asse...You are mostly right (ie correct :-)) in your assessments. Failing to break up the big banks was a huge lost opportunity.<br /><br />Unlike you, however, I would welcome a unified government under the Republicans at this point. The path we should be following is stimulus coupled with entitlement reform in the period 5-10 years out. Only the Republicans are willing to do this second thing. <br /><br />The Democrat's shameful refusal to propose a budget in the Senate disqualifies them from governing. They seem to stand for nothing but the unsustainable status quo.James50noreply@blogger.com