Joseph Stiglitz: Why You Want a Progressive to Be Running the Economy

[babylonsister]

Why You Want a Progressive to Be Running the Economy

By Joseph Stiglitz, The Guardian. Posted August 11, 2008.

Unlike the GOP, progressives have a coherent economic agenda offering not only higher growth, but also social justice.


Both the left and the right say they stand for economic growth. So should voters trying to decide between the two simply look at it as a matter of choosing alternative management teams?

If only matters were so easy! Part of the problem concerns the role of luck. America's economy was blessed in the 1990s with low energy prices, a high pace of innovation, and a China increasingly offering high-quality goods at decreasing prices, all of which combined to produce low inflation and rapid growth.

President Clinton and then-chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, deserve little credit for this--though, to be sure, bad policies could have messed things up. By contrast, the problems faced today --high energy and food prices and a crumbling financial system --have, to a large extent, been brought about by bad policies.

There are, indeed, big differences in growth strategies, which make different outcomes highly likely. The first difference concerns how growth itself is conceived. Growth is not just a matter of increasing GDP. It must be sustainable: growth based on environmental degradation, a debt-financed consumption binge, or the exploitation of scarce natural resources, without reinvesting the proceeds, is not sustainable.

Growth also must be inclusive; at least a majority of citizens must benefit. Trickle-down economics does not work: an increase in GDP can actually leave most citizens worse off. America's recent growth was neither economically sustainable nor inclusive. Most Americans are worse off today than they were seven years ago.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/94548/why_you_want_a_progressive_to_be_running_the_economy/?page=entire

[liberal N proud]

1. What is so hard for the right to understand about this?

It is so clear through history, yet they sell the lies over and over.

[zbdent]

2. Republicans were screaming that Clinton's budget would bankrupt the country

(1993 budget).

They signed off on it, saying "don't blame us for the economic chaos which will arise."

So, I don't blame them for the good economy which happened ...

In fact, there was one RW a-hole who was complaining during the impeachment hearings ... "If the economy wasn't so good, and we were at war, we wouldn't give a damn about who got a BJ!"

[MonteLukast]

3. It's the different definitions of "economic growth".

Who is it going to be for?-- for everybody, or for just a small group of very lucky friends?