Oh! Now, the panic sets in?

[Hannah Bell]

Economist blogger one:

Apparently, there is now at least one economist out there who has figured out he is clueless – more to follow in due course:


Economist blogger 2:

There is a critical point that I fear the commentariat is just not getting. In my darker moments I fear that some of my fellow economists aren’t getting it either but we aren’t going to go there.

Look at these two graphs because they tell you the fundamental problem in America today: We have very low capacity utilization (75%) and very high unemployment (10%). That is, we have factories sitting idle for lack of workers – low capacity utilization. At the same time we have workers sitting idle for lack of factories – high unemployment.

This is a fucking disaster.

http://modeledbehavior.com/2010/09/07/rome-is-burning/



Economist blogger 1:

A fucking disaster indeed – a needless fucking disaster right now. But, soon, a catastrophe of unimaginable scale. To go over this once more for the hard of hearing:

Two labourers, each working 12 hours daily, cannot produce the same mass of surplus-value as 24 who work only 2 hours, even if they could live on air and hence did not have to work for themselves at all. In this respect, then, the compensation of the reduced number of labourers by intensifying the degree of exploitation has certain insurmountable limits.

K. Marx, Capital Volume Three, chapter 15, section II

It’s like this dude:

Two workers putting in 12 hours days can produce as much bread as 12 workers putting in a two hour day, but – and this is the fucking point – those two workers won’t be able to eat all the bread they can produce!

http://pogoprinciple.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/oh-now-the-panic-sets-in/

[Iterate]

1. Oh those economists, it's hard to put one past 'em.

The better value of the links are in the comments. If so many people weren't hurting, it would be a laugh riot to see them twist as their world-view collapses.

Maybe the dazzle of magical markets has confused them. Perhaps it should be stated in third-grade terms so they can get a grip:

#1 We have enough stuff.

#2 Some of the stuff we have is crappy. Some, like our bread, needs improvement, and some, like our energy and transportation sector, needs to be replaced. Both need work.

#3 There is plenty of work to be done.

#4 Your money is broken; fourth-grade students can tell you it's because you haven't had a trickle-down economy as you've been told, you've been living under a disappear-at-the-top or disappear-elsewhere economy. In the fifth grade you'll learn, that as an index of market value, money doesn't measure everything and it doesn't measure it well; Poor people who have no office put the value of a office credenza at $0, while executives say it's worth $48,000. Many very important things have no money value.

#5 Even if your money is fixed for the moment, it will still be a flawed index, though it can be better if it counts only the work you do.

#6 If we can somehow share the work, we'll have plenty of time for recess. If we can make the money measure our work, we'll have plenty of that too.

OK, enough of that for now. I can tell that anything past six will confuse the poor economists.

[bvar22]

2. All HAIL the Invisible Hand!!!

All HAIL the Invisible Hand!!!
The Giant Invisible Hand will save us ALL!
Must NOT make the Giant Invisible Hand Angry!
MUST sacrifice the Working Class.
The Invisible Hand DEMANDS it!
All Hail the Giant Invisible Hand!!!

If you Work for a Living, do NOT trust ANY politician who expresses a belief in a Giant "Invisible Hand" or a "Free Market". Neither exist, and that politician is NOT your friend.