Recent quotes:

Austerity, Gramscian Hegemony, and Hard Money: To the Re-Education Camp! Weblogging - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

It made sense for those of my great-great grandfathers who were rich back before World War I to be hard-money guys. The investment vehicles open to them were land that pretty much had to be rented out at fixed nominal rents, bonds that paid fixed nominal yields, and equities where–unless you ran the business–you were quite probably a fool soon to be parted from his money by financial engineering. But it made no sense for my rich grandfather after World War II to be a hard-money guy. He had a much bigger portfolio of assets to invest in: equities backed by more-or-less honest accounts, land that the coming of automobiles and superhighways and the move to the sunbelt meant could be developed as suburbs, as well as leveraged resource speculations. He profited immensely from investments in all of these. Yet, in his heart of hearts, he remained a hard-money guy. And it really makes no sense for my contemporaries to be hard-money believers. Yet an astonishing share of the rich among them are. A great and enduring puzzle… So: To the re-education camp! I have a lot of rethinking to do
#Austerity - equitablegrowth.org

Afternoon Must-Read: Yanis Varoufakis: Confessions of an Erratic Marxist in the Midst of a Repugnant European Crisis - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

Yanis Varoufakis: Confessions of an Erratic Marxist in the Midst of a Repugnant European Crisis: “Europe is experiencing a slump that differs substantially… … from a ‘normal’ capitalist recession, of the type that is overcome through a wage squeeze which helps restore profitability. This secular, long-term slide toward asymmetrical depression and monetary disintegration puts radicals in a terrible dilemma
#Lesser-Depression #Austerity #Greece #Yanis-Varoufakis #Structural-Adjustment - equitablegrowth.org

Mindless and Mindful Austerity: Focus - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

I see that the femina spectabilis Diane Lim is a very unhappy camper: Diane Lim: Are We About to Let All of the Baby Boomers Off the Hook? (Please, No.): “‘Deficit reduction’ and ‘fiscal responsibility’ are ‘out’… …‘Critical investments’ and ‘shared prosperity’ are ‘in.’  Deficits are down to an economically sustainable range…. Our policymakers are no doubt relieved to take a break from having to talk about the hard stuff (spending cuts and tax increases) and getting to focus on the nice-sounding stuff (spending increases and tax cuts)…. Dismissing fiscal responsibility as a socially irresponsible idea is irresponsible…
#Macroeconomics #Fiscal-Policy #Austerity #Diane-Lim - equitablegrowth.org