Post Tagged with: "economy"

I understand the anger and the passion behind the Tea Party movement. The economy is stagnant, lots of Americans are out of work, and there hasn’t been a lot of good news over the past year. Given the state of our economy, it makes sense that people are angry. What […]

Subtitle: The Business Case for Progressives

I posed the question on a political blog recently: What would the Tea Party do to create a functioning economy? 

The answer that came back was: “Cut taxes, for starters.”

The “free market” is one of the most powerful frames conservatives use to advance their agenda. How many times have you heard the phrase “leave it to the market” or “let the market do its work”? This argument has been applied to everything from the breakup of AT&T to social security to just about every argument conservatives have about fighting “big government”.

The reason this argument is so effective is that most people can clearly see how the “free market” has brought many good things into their lives. The idea of a “win, win” situation is understood from daily transactions. When markets function properly, people often benefit.

The issue is that certain conditions are necessary to maintain this functioning “free market”. The Rockridge Institute has one of the best summations I’ve seen of the underlying assumptions of a “free market”.

Here’s an interesting post from Jared Bernstein on the growing economic gap between rich and poor. Compiled from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) statistics, here’s some highlights: $400 billion was transferred from the bottom 95% to the top 5%. The share of income held by the top 1% has climbed […]

While it’s heartening to see that someone is listening out there, it’s a little disheartening to see that it’s President Bush’s speech writers. This past week Bush made a speech in which he accused Congress of “acting like a teenager with a new credit card.” Does anyone else see any […]

President Bush issued a press release this past week about our economy. In addition to talking about the great shape the economy is in, he took a jab at critics of his heavy-handed interrogation strategy. His message? If you want to be safe, trust us. This is basically the message […]

Whatever happened to James Carville’s slogan from the Clinton years? Has the Iraq war dominated all discussion? Is the economy so good right now that we don’t have to worry about it? Is it no longer the economy, stupid? I don’t believe either of these statements are true. But what […]