The folly of Marketism

[ashling]

Want to avoid another Depression? Try understanding the first one.

By Robert S. McElvaine, Sunday, July 10, 7:59 AM

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Conservatives appear to be united behind a set of beliefs that are dangerously wrong. Theirs is a faith-based economics that contrasts with fact-based economics; their god is named the Market. Their economics is as immune to facts as its opposite, Marxism. Call it Marketism. A devout Marketist believes that the Market is always right and any government intervention is, well, sinful.

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It is plain that the reason the New Deal failed to end the Depression is not that Roosevelt and Congress overspent, but that they underspent. The New Deal was not too reckless in its spending; it was too cautious. The war ended the Depression precisely because it obliged Roosevelt and Congress to spend greater and greater amounts without worrying about where the money was coming from.

The basic reason that the Obama administration has not yet ended the economic disaster it inherited — as reflected in Friday’s dismal jobs report — is the same reason that prevented the New Deal from ending the Depression FDR inherited: It hasn’t spent enough. The 2009 stimulus staved off a second Great Depression, but it should have been much larger to produce a genuine recovery. Subsequently, even with majorities in both houses, the Democrats let the GOP define the argument and failed to force through needed programs to get the economy back on its feet.

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The goal of Republicans today, though, is to use the claim that we cannot afford social programs as an excuse to repeal the New Deal and go back to the halcyon days of Calvin Coolidge.

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Robert S. McElvaine, a professor of history at Millsaps College, is the author of “The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941.” He is at work on a new book about the 1960s.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/want-to-avoid-another-depression-try-understanding-the-first-one/2011/07/07/gIQAbKlx6H_story.html
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McElvaine started teaching at Millsaps when I was a senior there.

[Vincardog]

1. The goal of Republicans today, is to go back to the halcyon days of Calvin Coolidge. Exactly

[Odin2005]

2. I have his book on the Depression. Great read.

[robcon]

3. Marketism is the savior of the world. U.S. middle class depends on it.

A lot better than the impoverishment of non-market solutions.

Just look at the impoverishment of a 'rich' country, Venezuela.

[ashling]

4. Either you did not read or did not grasp the argument made in the editorial

economics is not a zero sum game. "Marketism" as McElvain uses the term, conteds precisely that.

There never has been any such thing as a truly free market.