The United States is experiencing its worst crisis in decades. Obama is trying to fight it by preparing one gigantic economic stimulus program after the other. But the hangover is inevitable, and if the desired economic miracle doesn't materialize, it will be a massive one. The most attractive thing about globalization is that it has enabled us to develop international tastes in our shopping. Our wine comes from France, our flat-screen televisions from Korea and our elegant shoes from Italy. But you can also find good ideas for governing by shopping for them around the world. The catalogue of ideas is packed. Indeed, many countries have answers to the question on everyone's mind these days: "How do I rescue my economy?"
The United States is experiencing its worst crisis in decades. Obama is trying to fight it by preparing one gigantic economic stimulus program after the other. But the hangover is inevitable, and if the desired economic miracle doesn't materialize, it will be a massive one.
The most attractive thing about globalization is that it has enabled us to develop international tastes in our shopping. Our wine comes from France, our flat-screen televisions from Korea and our elegant shoes from Italy.
But you can also find good ideas for governing by shopping for them around the world. The catalogue of ideas is packed. Indeed, many countries have answers to the question on everyone's mind these days: "How do I rescue my economy?"
Obama gets elected, and instead of having all of these leftover hacks from the Clinton years in his Cabinet, he has people like Krugman, Amy Goodman, Keith Olbermann, Noam Chomsky, Evo Morales, etc.
Result: PEOPLE WOULD GO NUTSO! We are DOOOOOOMED!
So let the current crowd/solution FAIL MISERABLY and then what?
Question: Is ET "well positioned" to become a source of new ideas ... I don't know ... like FT or WSJ is constantly quoted?
We all know that the current Obama plan is NOT going to work, right? Then what? Go back to the Republicans? HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAH! In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
We all know that the current Obama plan is NOT going to work, right? Then what? Go back to the Republicans?
why not ? In the UK we're gonna get a conservative govt when Brown is voted out and that's gonna be so much worse than Brown. keep to the Fen Causeway
the hangover is inevitable, and if the desired economic miracle doesn't materialize, it will be a massive one
And that gets us to politics. This really does look like a plan that falls well short of what advocates of strong stimulus were hoping for -- and it seems as if that was done in order to win Republican votes. Yet even if the plan gets the hoped-for 80 votes in the Senate, which seems doubtful, responsibility for the plan's perceived failure, if it's spun that way, will be placed on Democrats.I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we're talking about now, is crafted to win those extra GOP votes. The plan limits the rise in unemployment, but things are still pretty bad, with the rate peaking at something like 9 percent and coming down only slowly. And then Mitch McConnell says "See, government spending doesn't work." Let's hope I've got this wrong.
I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we're talking about now, is crafted to win those extra GOP votes. The plan limits the rise in unemployment, but things are still pretty bad, with the rate peaking at something like 9 percent and coming down only slowly. And then Mitch McConnell says "See, government spending doesn't work."
Let's hope I've got this wrong.
