Blog with a Thousand Faces

joegressivism:

avatareverlark:

joegressivism:

“What European country did conservatives love before this crisis? What was the highest ranked Western country on the heritage index of economic freedom? What is the country with the lowest corporate tax rates? It was Ireland, and by the way Ireland has done everything. Ireland is Romney’s economy in practice. They’ve laid off a large fraction of their public work force, they’ve slashed spending, they haven’t really raised taxes on corporations of the rich at all. Um, they have 14% unemployment, 30% youth unemployment, zero economic growth. Ireland is a demonstration. I think of Ireland as America’s future if Romney is president.”

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Paul Krugman on economic strategies in European countries (The Colbert Report 6-18/2012)

I often fear that no one will listen to Paul Krugman before it’s too late.

While I hate Romney’s economic plan, I don’t think it’s right to say that we will become like Ireland if we follow his plan. People forget that we have an economic advantage that most people/nations don’t: We are the world’s monetary hegemon.

How is that not right? One of the largest drivers of unemployment in the US is public sector layoffs. We’re already on the road to Ireland, we’re still dealing with Bush-era economic policies of low taxes on corporations and a poorly funded public sector. Everything Romney has claimed to do is to continue that trend and even make it worse.