I was listening to George Soros give a speech on sovereign debt around noon

[BoberFett]

What we're experiencing are the consequences, the aftermath of failed republican policy from Reagan forward.

Current policy, the policy of the Obama Admin, isn't enough different to create a turnaround in the fortunes of middle class people.

For that, we'll need a modernized version of the New Deal. Given the denial of righties and the delusions of so-called libertarians, things will have to get worse before they can get better, to break the cycle of denial. And they will.

Government and citizens alike have been spending, and spending, and spending some more. Deficits be damned! Yep, that's Keynes in a nutshell. Spend your way to prosperity.

 

[Moonbeam]

Government and citizens alike have been spending, and spending, and spending some more. Deficits be damned! Yep, that's Keynes in a nutshell. Spend your way to prosperity.

Geez, I hear from Republicans that tax policy and regulation has gone so wild businesses aren't hiring or spending and we have a recession. Now you tell me there's too much spending.

 

[Medu]

Yes, because prevailing fiscal policy is doing wonders for our economy. Just look at it flourish!

/facepalm

Here in Europe there are strikes due the governments cuts while in the US people their are protests over spending too much! Both sides are saying to do what they are doing on the other side of the pond yet neither 'seem' to be working. People need to stop believing that there is a magically solution that can be implement over night to solve a problem that took at least a decade to create.

 

[PeshakJang]

Evidence?

Throwing water in your face wouldn't be enough evidence that it were wet.

It's pretty hilarious how you can make the most obscure case for people like the Koch brothers running these grand conspiracy campaigns to control the government, while you happily get down on your knees for the man who owns just about every Democrat in Washington.

Poor little Craigy. So young and innocent.

 

[Narmer]

Here is an article about the event

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS...ia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r4:c0.052184:b38053652:z0

(Reuters) - Billionaire investor George Soros blamed Germany for leading the implementation of austerity measures that will throw the euro zone into a "deflation spiral."
Additional fiscal stimulus --and not fiscal discipline-- is the way out of the crisis for both Europe and the United States, Soros said in a speech at Columbia University on Tuesday.
"Deficit reduction by a creditor country such as Germany is in direct contradiction of the lessons learnt from the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is liable to push Europe into a period of prolonged stagnation or worse," Soros said.
Germany is unlikely to change its ways, however, because its economy is doing well and because the difficulties of other countries can be blamed on structural rigidities, Soros said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also gained the upper hand in a recent G20 meeting where she joined forces with Canada and newly elected Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron to put pressure on other countries to adopt austerity measures, Soros noted.
As a result, President Barack Obama yielded to the majority and agreed to cut the U.S. budget deficit by half by 2013.
"This may be the right policy but it comes at the wrong time," Soros said.
Soros doesn't think Obama should extend the tax cuts pushed
by his predecessor George W. Bush. Instead, he says, the government should direct the extra money coming from higher taxes into fiscal measures to stimulate investment, not consumption.
(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

 

[PeshakJang]

Here is an article about the event

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS...ia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r4:c0.052184:b38053652:z0

It's particularly funny how he uses the "right policy at the wrong time" excuse in describing the fiscal austerity of Germany, then turns around and says we need to end the tax cuts now, when doing just that is what sent us into the second economic downturn of the mid-late 30s... in direct contradiction to the lessons learned from the Great Depression indeed.

 

[theeedude]

It's particularly funny how he uses the "right policy at the wrong time" excuse in describing the fiscal austerity of Germany, then turns around and says we need to end the tax cuts now, when doing just that is what sent us into the second economic downturn of the mid-late 30s... in direct contradiction to the lessons learned from the Great Depression indeed.

Ending top bracket Bush tax cuts is going to get them to Clinton era rates, last I checked those rates did not lead to economic downturn, just the opposite.

 

[Craig234]

Ending top bracket Bush tax cuts is going to get them to Clinton era rates, last I checked those rates did not lead to economic downturn, just the opposite.

Nor did Eisenhower era tax rates.

 

[theeedude]

Yep, the vast expansion of middle class happened with some of the highest top bracket rates ever. And ever since those were cut by Reagan and then Bush, the middle class has been getting squeezed dry. Coincidence?