Depressing reading

Does "Changes" Mean Something Different at the NYT Than in Normal English? by Dean Baker

"In the 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama said that his top priority as president would be to “create bottom-up economic growth” and reduce inequality. He has governed as such." 

This is at best debatable. President Obama bailed out the big Wall Street banks, allowing them to get trillions of dollars in loans at below market interest rates. This massive subsidy allowed many of the richest people in the country to preserve their wealth when market forces left to themselves almost certainly would have put most of the major banks out of business. 

Obama has also refused to make a reduction in the value of the dollar a top goal in trade policy. A lower valued dollar would create millions of new manufacturing jobs by making U.S. goods more competitive in the world economy. This would provide a strong boost to labor demand and wages.

Some Perspective on the Fiscal Cliff Deal by Jared Bernstein

Social Security: Principles, Facts, and Fixes by Bernstein

My Views on Spending Cuts and Entitlements by Bernstein

In Case You Were Dying For More Polemics On the Chained CPI…Here Ya Go: by Jared Bernstein

But They Will Always Smash It On The Floor by Duncan Black

But Republicans will inevitably see a balanced budget as an opportunity to give money to rich people (tax cuts and crony capitalism). The reward for liberals for this well done very important work? Tax cuts for rich people and unpaid for disastrous wars. 

Liberals should spend their time in office figuring out how to implement a sticky liberal agenda, one which is hard to dislodge, not figuring out how to create a pot of money for Republicans to steal when it is their turn.

As Baker points out, the tax cuts for rich people and unpaid disastrous wars didn't bust the budget, the housing bubble did that. We need a way to fix the shampoo economy.

Exciting reading:

Commenter at Beat the Press writes:

"President Obama is a huge fan of Lincoln's second inaugural address. Hopefully, President Obama's second inaugural won't disappoint."

Yes! I hope he lays into the debt ceiling clown show, more Jamie Foxx on jobs spending than Samuel Jackson on deficit reduction and "shared sacrifice."* This will be his legacy.

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*Reference to the new film "Django Unchained."