Beyond Right and Left on the Economy

"President Obama grossly overstated the support these policies enjoy by claiming, 'economists on the left and right agree that the last thing the government should do during a recession is cut back on spending," says Peter Schiff — Not All Economists Agree.

Kelley Vlahos on one institution that has benefited from the crisis — Military Recruitment and the Economic Crisis. She concludes, "It’s a pity that a economic crisis at home might forestall real reform in the Armed Forces — who can possibly hold their feet to fire when they have all the 'cannon fodder' necessary to fight these unpopular but nonetheless ongoing wars abroad?"

"Even during the boom years, one of the dirty secrets of the economy was that middle and lower-class wages were not keeping up with inflation," writes Daniel McCarthy — What the Fed Has Done to the Working Man. He asks us to keep in mind that "this impoverishment is not a function of the burst [but] a product of the original bubble."

"How about a test of your injustice barometer?" writes the man who got my vote in '08 — Bailout Indignation.

"Behind the scenes, banks are rapidly reshifting power, wealth and control of the U.S. economy," writes Don Monkerud, and all we knoew is that "the wealthy increased their share of national wealth, and taxpayers are left to pay for it" — Economic Recovery for Whom?

"The economic news in the near and medium term is ghastly," suggests Alexander Cockburn, noting that "Wall Street and its boosters are trying to pretend that indeed the worst is over" — Thin Ice From Here to the Horizon.

"It’s a curious symptom of the consensus trance zombifying the American public and its auditors in the media that something like a 'recovery' is now deemed to be underway," begins James Howard Kunstler — The Coming Siege of Austerity.