My most apt analogy to the two roads diverging before us

My most apt analogy to the two roads diverging before us:

We are facing a choice that I think is best described by this story.

You, representing yourself and all Americans, have just seen half your neighborhood burned down by a crazed arsonist.

You must now choose between two agents to solve the crises in flames all around you.

One is the fireman, hose in hand and backed up by a fleet of fire trucks.

The other is the crazed arson, eyes glinting with the imminent power to set more infernos, in his hands a can of gasoline and matchbook.

As half our country looks to the fireman, we also look on the other half, baffled, unable to comprehend how they actually want to turn to the same forces that unleashed our nation's destruction. And all we can think is, are these people crazy? Are they on crack? Are they insane crackheads?

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It is an amazing time we are living in, and all the more so an amazing time to be teaching economics at the college level. Where one year ago, five years, ten, twenty years ago regulation was always a bad word, now everyone regardless of their political-economic leanings calls for more regulation, be they left, right, center, Democrat, Republican, they all say regulation of the financial sector is superior to the anarchic deregulatory environment that has been pressed by the laissez-faire (L-F) crowd. Today I would not be surprised if Ron Paul starting calling for some sort of regulation.

And it is a sign of the times that it was announced today, October 13th 2008, that Paul Krugman, one of my favorite Economists (Sorry Paul I think the illest is still Joseph Stiglitz) was awarded the Economics Nobel Prize. The same award was given in 1976 to Milton Friedman
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/.

Friedman is of the "Chicago School" L-F free-market purist school. In fact he was a pillar of that school and much of the inspiration behind Naomi Klein's groundbreaking book and tour about "The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." In other words, Friedman's theories and Krugman's could not be any more diametrically opposed. Krugman's Nobel prize is a pure reflection of the recognition that the "drown the government in the bathtub" philosphy is an abject failure.

I've often said we should try every extreme right wing idea in politics and society short of direct ethnic cleansing. We should try their ideas deregulating the economy, privatizing government out of existence except as a power to enforce authority through military, prisons, and police (the first two of which are already highly privatized as it is).

We should deport all the illegal immigrants, criminalize abortion, put away every offender of a victimless-crime to multiply our prison system by ten. We should do all the things the right-wingers want. Why? To see what type of third-world country we then will become. Privatize education like they do in Nigeria so only the paying rich can attend school. Kids fit well in the mines anyway.

I've often said we should implement their every right-wing policy, just to see how much of a banana republic we can become and realize that we should never ever try any of those ideas again. And I've often hoped we wouldn't have to run such a terrible experiment because we can see how the Washington Consensus (L-F/ right-wing/ destroy government/ privatize/ induce IMF riot) has destroyed every economy and society it has touched, with zero success stories. In other words, can we learn from the the essence of the turning from Friedman-ism to Krugman-ism?

But now I realize I don't have to invest such schadenfreude http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=schadenfreude
in that risky rightist fantasy proposition. Because we've had the last eight years in which exactly that experiment was being conducted on our society, and we have the disastrous results, the final verdict, burning our economy, safety, and standing in the world, all around us.

Voting Recommendations for CA Propositions - November 4th is Voting Day

Northern Californians and All Americans:

2008 Propositions Voting Recommendations from an Economics Professor

Politically I am very progressive and pro-Obama.


Prop 1 Yes

Prop 2 Yes

Prop 3 Yes

Prop 4 No

Prop 5 Yes

Prop 6 No

Prop 7 No

Prop 8 No

Prop 9 No

Prop 10 Yes

Prop 11 No

Prop 12 No





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