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Austerity

Mark Gongloff

Skagit River Bridge Collapse A Grim Reminder Of Austerity's Bite

HuffingtonPost.com | Mark Gongloff | Posted 05.24.2013 | Business

Don't believe austerity can kill you? Then you should feel totally safe driving over our nation's crumbling bridges. An epic government spending sq...

Washington's Sinkhole. Literally.

Robert L. Borosage | Posted 05.23.2013 | Politics
Robert L. Borosage

We are sitting idly, watching, and suffering, as our nation disintegrates into a run-down backwater. At the same time, over 20 million people are in need of full-time work. Yet instead of grabbing this opportunity to rebuild the country, Washington is focused on cutting budgets.

Scott Walker's Austerity Plan: Turning Wisconsin Into the New Greece

Lee A. Saunders | Posted 05.23.2013 | Politics
Lee A. Saunders

Scott Walker and his tea party cohorts bought the snake oil of austerity. They forced the Badger State to drink it. And Wisconsin's families are suffering because the governor ignored the evidence that it is a toxic brew.

Mark Gongloff

Discredited Economist Blasts Back

HuffingtonPost.com | Mark Gongloff | Posted 05.23.2013 | Business

Kenneth Rogoff is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it any more. The Harvard economist has taken a beating since the discovery that much of h...

Unite the Classes, March on the Lobbyists

Carl Gibson | Posted 05.23.2013 | Politics
Carl Gibson

We have to learn to set aside our pet issues like gun control and abortion, which are only used by the media and the politicians to keep people divided.

Pete Peterson's Fix the Debt CEOs Promote Austerity for the Masses, Expanding Wealth for the 1 Percent

Michele Swenson | Posted 05.21.2013 | Denver
Michele Swenson

Fix the Debt is the most recent incarnation of the Pete Peterson machine seeking imposition of austerity on the masses, ostensibly to address economic downturn.

Europe's Ghosts Are Here to Stay

Carlos Carnicero Urabayen | Posted 05.21.2013 | World
Carlos Carnicero Urabayen

As the lack of trust and discontent continue growing, the citizens are turning their back on the traditional pro-European political parties and supporting others who are against the EU.

Hello Republicans: Japan Switches to Stimulus, Gets Growth; Europe Sticks With Austerity, Stays in Recession

Ian Reifowitz | Posted 05.20.2013 | Politics
Ian Reifowitz

As Europe reminds us, it prevents recession-battered economies from growing. The alternative is to prime the economic pump by having governments engage in fiscal and monetary stimulus.

Krugman: Austerity Policies Based On 'A Mythical 70s That Never Was'

Posted 05.20.2013 | Business

They say hindsight is 20/20, but according to Paul Krugman it may actually be much worse than that when it comes to economic policy-making. The No...

Kuttner's Debtors' Prison: A Much-Needed Brief Against Austerity

Richard (RJ) Eskow | Posted 05.18.2013 | Politics
Richard (RJ) Eskow

Debtors' Prison should be required reading for anyone who influences economic policy in this country. Open-minded readers should come away convinced that we need to reject the economics of despair for an economics of hope.

Jason Linkins

Michael Kinsley Feels Your Pain, Middle Class, But Pain Makes You Beautiful

HuffingtonPost.com | Jason Linkins | Posted 05.18.2013 | Politics

The austerity policies that gripped the world in the face of the global economic downturn have not worked. Unless the intent was to make a bad situati...

Dire Warning About Rich-Poor Divide

Reuters | Posted 05.14.2013 | Business

* Welfare spending vital to bridging growing wealth gap - OECD * Rich-poor divided widened quickly after financial crisis ...

Time to Abolish Left vs. Right

Carl Gibson | Posted 05.14.2013 | Politics
Carl Gibson

If we're going to fight a binary struggle, it should be populist versus corporatist. That's the only real division in this country right now. Are you on the people's side, or on big money's side?

The Downtoning of America

Leo W. Gerard | Posted 05.13.2013 | Politics
Leo W. Gerard

Republicans want to kill the government that accomplished that. They want to go back to Downton Abbey days. The rich stay rich; the poor stay servants.

Ghost in the Machine: Pete Peterson Haunts College Campuses

Mary Bottari | Posted 05.12.2013 | Politics
Mary Bottari

Media touted the event without looking deeper. Clips the day after did the same. Nary a mention of Pete Peterson or his vicious austerity agenda which will slash government spending, kill jobs, condemn students to higher rates of debt and make it much harder for graduates to succeed.

Fix the Debt Flashmob Participants Oppose Social Security Cuts

Daniel Marans | Posted 05.10.2013 | Politics
Daniel Marans

Fix the Debt did a dance flash mob in Farragut Square in downtown Washington, D.C., around noon on Friday. Two participants expressed concern about the debt, but did not want to cut Social Security.

Vice's Austerity Coverage Disappoints

Daniel Marans | Posted 05.10.2013 | Media
Daniel Marans

The research discrediting the Reinhart-Rogoff study is upending the economic policy discussion everywhere. Everywhere, apparently, except for HBO's new series Vice.

A Lost Age of Fiscal Heroes? Not So Much.

Joseph J. Thorndike | Posted 05.10.2013 | Politics
Joseph J. Thorndike

The debate over fiscal responsibility has been muddled by the Great Recession; inevitably, perhaps, arguments over long-term fiscal problems have been conflated with debates over short-term recovery programs. Both debates have suffered terribly as a consequence.

The Rich Have Gained $5.6 Trillion in the 'Recovery,' While the Rest of Us Have Lost $669 Billion

Les Leopold | Posted 05.09.2013 | Politics
Les Leopold

It's as if the entire economic recovery is going into the pockets of the rich. And that's no accident. Here's why.

Austerity Is a Political Loser for Either Party

Joseph A. Palermo | Posted 05.09.2013 | Politics
Joseph A. Palermo

Even a minimal "vision" of an America that can still accomplish something would appear to be far more uplifting than the austerity snake oil the current crop of Republican politicians keep pushing.

Paul Ryan: Progressivism Is 'Arrogant And Condescending'

The Huffington Post | Preston Maddock | Posted 05.09.2013 | Politics

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) belittled progressives during a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday. “Progressivism is ...

Boehner Accidentally Proves That The Budget Deficit Really Isn't A Problem

Bloomberg View | Josh Barro | Posted 05.09.2013 | Business

BLOOMBERG VIEW: This week, in an interview with Bloomberg Television, House Speaker John Boehner warned that the U.S. government must balance its b...

Economists: Without Austerity, Unemployment Would Be A Point Lower

The New York Times | Posted 05.09.2013 | Politics

The nation's unemployment rate would probably be nearly a point lower, roughly 6.5 percent, and economic growth almost two points higher this year if ...

Austerinomics, the Anti-Growth Orthodoxy

Harlan Green | Posted 05.07.2013 | Business
Harlan Green

Once again, Karl Rove/GW Bush attempted to turn the clock back to the beginning of the 19th century, and we are now living with the consequences--wars and budget deficits without end. It's hard to see what form a new nationalism will take, until and unless a new Teddy Roosevelt comes along.

Debt Derangement

Dean Baker | Posted 05.07.2013 | Business
Dean Baker

Bob Kuttner has been among the country's most visible advocates of stimulus. His new book, Debtors' Prison: The Politics of Austerity versus Possibility is his latest shot at the austerity gang.