Tuesday, February 24, 2009

bg/ish: So, What Exactly Happened To Our Economy?

clearly this country is in the midst of an economic crisis. if you haven't been paying attention, you may not realize exactly how we got to this point. Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan administration, has a fantastic article on CounterPunch detailing exactly how our economic system has eroded and crumbled.

"The bald fact is that the combination of ignorance, negligence, and ideology that permitted the crisis to happen still prevails and is blocking any remedy. Either the people in power in Washington and the financial community are total dimwits or they are manipulating an opportunity to redistribute wealth from taxpayers, equity owners and pension funds to the financial sector.

The Bush and Obama plans total 1.6 trillion dollars, every one of which will have to be borrowed, and no one knows from where. This huge sum will compromise the value of the US dollar, its role as reserve currency, the ability of the US government to service its debt, and the price level. These staggering costs are pointless and are to no avail, as not one step has been taken that would alleviate the crisis."

Read the complete article here.

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