The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

You have zero precedent for massive govt/monetary stimulus getting us out of a depression or sharp recession. None.

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Really?

What about the Great Depression?  

When Roosevelt got into the White House, he did the same thing that Obama did (not enough stimulus) and when the economy began to improve, Roosevelt let the conservatives talk him into putting on the brakes.  The result was just like what we're seeing now:  The US slipped back into Depression in 1937. It took the MASSIVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING of WWII to get us out of it.  Finally.
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

Not enough? So we should print more money and then give that away?

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That's certainly one way to do it.

Other ways include ending corporate welfare, actually collecting taxes on those who owe them, tax the rich, 'grow the economy' by ending the subsidies and incentives to corporations for offshoring jobs and factories, single payer universal health care, letting the government negotiate the prices of pharmaceuticals, end the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and the 'Global War On Terror' (it's really a resource grab, oil, for US multinationals), end the War on Drugs, etc.  

There are number of ways to end this Depression and restore this nation's economic health and the middle class.  But the only method on Republicans' brains, that we know doesn't work (cutting taxes, deregulating and privatizing), Republicans won't let go of.  The corporate-bought Democrats won't either, so it seems that we're just going to have to bottom out, crash and burn, endure massive misery and hard times.
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

Not enough? So we should print more money and then give that away? Just print more money?

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That's one way to do it.

Another is to end corporate welfare.  

Another is to actually collect taxes on those who owe them.

Another way is to tax the rich.

Another way is to 'grow the economy' by ending the subsidies and incentives to corporations for offshoring jobs and factories.

Another way is single payer universal health care.

Another way is to end the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Global War On Terror (it's really a resource grab, oil, for US multinationals), and end the War on Drugs.

I can go on and on with the methods for getting out of this Depression and restoring the wealth and well-being of this nation.
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

The most remarkable aspect of America's current job situation is that the private sector IS hiring, and at a pretty good clip.  Indeed, at the firm I work for there are over a dozen positions we're looking to fill right now.

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If that was true, the April jobs' report would have been better.

Just like how you can't predict who will win an election by how your friends voted, whatever is going on where you work, if what you say is true, can't be assumed true for everywhere.
About Barack Obama
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

Money has been flowing into "the job creators' pockets" and they're not creating jobs as Republicans promised.  Businesses aren't putting people to work.  That's because what causes businesses to add workers is demand for a product.  People don't have money to buy anything.  

And here's what's really going to frost the cookies of supporters of 'austerity':  The real estate in the US that Americans have been foreclosed on?  It's being snatched up, purchased as income property, by foreigners.  Foreigners are purchasing American real estate for rock bottom prices, as second, third, twelfth homes, vacation properties, rental properties.
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

It wasn't enough.

We on the left said it at the time.  

Between that and Republicans refusing to end tax breaks and incentives for outsourcing jobs, and taxing corporations and ending subsidies to corporations (which are making record profits!), this downturn was predictable and predicted.

You don't cut spending, you don't shrink government (those are jobs -  teachers, police, firefighters, etc.) at times like these.  You increase spending.  

This is basic Keynesian economics.  This isn't new ground we're breaking here - We've been here before, we know what works.
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

The solution is a massive spending program, which Republicans have blocked and Democrats refuse to make the case for.
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

Every major German economist disagrees with you

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Oh really?

Not so:

EU austerity policies risk civil war in Greece, warns top German economist Dr Sinn

One German economist is ready to spend, stimulate
Outspoken Keynesian Peter Bofinger of the influential German Council of Economic Experts says even Germany is starting to feel the pinch of austerity.

Let Krugman explain it all to you - http://www.lepointinternational.com/it/economia-e-finanza/europa/536-economist-paul-krugman-slams-german-austerity.html
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

Shrinking rents?  

The price of everything has gone up.  Including rents.
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

Massive spending is what's necessary.  Republicans refuse and Obama and Democrats haven't stepped up to push for it.  
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The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

This isn't rocket science - We on the left predicted this, we've been saying it's a Depression and have been talking about the solution for years now.  

Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winning economist, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, Princeton professor and author of the new book “End This Depression Now!” talks with Rachel Maddow about the relationship between income inequality, political polarization and economic crises
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-show/47256280

Lawrence O’Donnell talks with Paul Krugman - Now Is The Time To Spend
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-last-word/47289355

Paul Krugman and New York magazine’s John Heilemann on Hardball.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/hardball/47300450
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