Something to ponder

MANIFESTO

From today's Sunday Talking Heads:

I want people held responsible for those crimes [of torture and wiretapping], but I also realize that the incoming administration may not be able to spend any man-hours on anything other than getting the country out of the hole it's in.

This may be the way the Obamans' policies will have to go. It won't be very satisfying to my sense of vengeance, but it may ultimately be satisfying to my sense of economic justice.

And concerning solutions to the financial mess, Dr. Marshall adds this:

The debate about spending priorities essentially comes down to how much bang for your buck you get in economic stimulus terms for tax cuts or rebates (even for middle or low income people most inclined to spend it) versus government spending, especially in the context of a dramatic economic downturn. And from what I can tell there's a lot of empirical evidence that the latter wins out by a substantial margin.

It astounds me that this argument is still going on and that supply siders still exist, for that matter. Laffer's theory was clearly disproved in the 1980s and has been a dismal failure every time it's been tried since. Yet, it's a mainstay in any American economic debate because the booboisie is certain it's getting something beneficial in a tax cut, and the plutocrats realize that it's a way to attain public approval for lining their pockets even more.