The Austerity Agenda By PAUL KRUGMAN

[Swede]

“The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity.” So declared John Maynard Keynes 75 years ago, and he was right. Even if you have a long-run deficit problem — and who doesn’t? — slashing spending while the economy is deeply depressed is a self-defeating strategy, because it just deepens the depression.

So why is Britain doing exactly what it shouldn’t? Unlike the governments of, say, Spain or California, the British government can borrow freely, at historically low interest rates. So why is that government sharply reducing investment and eliminating hundreds of thousands of public-sector jobs, rather than waiting until the economy is stronger?

Over the past few days, I’ve posed that question to a number of supporters of the government of Prime Minister David Cameron, sometimes in private, sometimes on TV. And all these conversations followed the same arc: They began with a bad metaphor and ended with the revelation of ulterior motives.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/opinion/krugman-the-austerity-agenda.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

[shcrane71]

1. Balancing the budget during the Great Depression didn't exactly help Hoover

maintain his job.

[FirstLight]

2. This man is always *so* right on

...so yes, they are using it as a way to un-do social programs... since we all KNOW this, how do we STOP it?

[Eddie Haskell]

3. Because their real goal is the destruction of the labor movement.

As George Carlin put it, "They don't give a shit about us."

[WriteWrong]

5. Bah. That's like saying the Nazi's goal was the destruction of Erich Fromm

Their real goal is the destruction of life on earth. This is why they are so determined to poison the world with mutagenic and teratogenic chemicals and radiation. They want to be sure than even the one-celled creatures suffer. Why frack unless you are determined to poison entire aquifers for centuries? Why create huge stockpiles of unstable nuclear waste in unstable populated areas unless you want them to fail?

[TBF]

6. Yup, that is always their goal -

and Capitalism only encourages that behavior.

[ladjf]

4. We should listen to Krugman. nt