or he thinks we are.
After bubbles burst there is no pent-up desire to invest. Instead there is a glut of capital caused by over-investment during the period of confidence vacant houses, malls without tenants and factories without customers.
So what's his recipe for success?
Substantial withdrawal of fiscal stimulus at the end of 2011 would be premature. Stimulus should be continued and indeed expanded by providing the payroll tax cut to employers as well as employees. Raising the share of payroll from 2 per cent to 3 per cent is desirable, too.
More fucking tax cuts. Not just any tax cuts but tax cuts to Social Security. The worst part is this asshole actually credits the payroll tax cuts for keeping us out of a double dip.
Hey Larry, um the tax cuts were passed in December not last August and since then our economy HAS dipped.
The worst part is below.
The worst part is Larry Summers recognized what the solutions are and he touches up on them but he does so only after pushing for more tax cuts and not just any tax cuts but ones that will purposefully destroy Social Security by cutting the funding of the program.
These assholes for all their supposed intelligence are fucking stupid.
Or they think we are and are purposefully using this crisis THEY FUCKING CREATED to rob us of our social safety net and enrich themselves even more.
More Larry
At the same time we should recognise that it is a false economy to defer infrastructure maintenance and replacement, and take advantage of a moment when 10-year interest rates are below 3 per cent and construction unemployment approaches 20 per cent to expand infrastructure investment.
Ya think?
The problem we have is that there is no fucking demand in our economy. The rich and the corporations have all the money they could want. It's everyone else that doesn't have two nickels to rub together. They're not investing and never will because they will not make more money out of it. There is no incentive to invest because we can no longer afford to buy their shit. Even Walmart is becoming too expensive for us to shop at. The Dollar Store is the only retailer that is doing well. I wonder why. I guess it wasn't a brilliant idea after all to force 95% of us into poverty. The rich can and will only buy so much crap before they have everything they could possibly want.
When even the Treasury Secretary under George W. Bush and former CEO of ALCOA tells you tax cuts won't work because it would be mind numbingly dumb to spend money on your business if nobody is going to buy more of your goods and services then you know you have a diaper full of unholy filth and stench on the level only David Vitter could enjoy.
The solution? CREATE SOME FUCKING JOBS. Don't wait for the private sector to do it, JUST FUCKING DO IT. They won't do it because they don't believe in charity, they only believe in MAKING MORE MONEY. Tax cuts won't create one goddamn job. Never have and never will. It just puts more money in the pockets of the rich who already have plenty so they can go spend it here.
Tax cuts didn't work this whole decade in creating jobs or reviving our economy, they haven't done shit since they've been extended in December.
Tax cuts crashed our economy in the early 80's under Reagan and it took tax increases and massive deficit spending to get us back on track.
Oh and Ann (Coulter) Tax cuts and deregulation DESTROYED our economy in the 'roaring' 20's and led to the Great Depression.
It was only after a huge amount of deficit spending and something called the WPA in which the gov't directly hired people to work that we started to climb out. Oh and taxes were increased after that. Funny thing happened though, our economy PROSPERED. For 35 years from 1945 to 1980. It was only when Reagan lowered the taxes that we had another massive recession again. Biggest since the Great Depression. Ever since we've been having alot of those. Ever since we've continually lowered taxes too. SEE ANY FUCKING PATTERN?
Larry Summers cites the problems with state budgets and their reduced income and tax collections as the cause of crippling austerity hitting the states but never cite the fact that tax collections are low because tax RATES are low. Specifically tax rates on the only people who have anything to tax. You see there is no more blood to be gotten from that stone under which the 95% of us live. Our houses are tapped out or underwater, our jobs are in China, our 401k's are 40.1k's and our credit lines have been cut off. We have no more to give, but the rich do.
We aren't broke as a country, not when the rich are as rich as ever and corporations have trillions of dollars they're sitting on. The 5% are richer than ever. They don't need any more and can certainly give some of it back.
So here's a hint Larry, let's stop deferring infrastructure maintenance and replacement and start investing in our own economy, our own country, using our own sweat and our own hands. You see Larry, it was the investments the President Obama made in the auto industry, alternative energy and in infrastructure that got us going and got us out of the greatest recession since the Great Depression (where have I heard that before), not the tax cuts you mentioned. The investments that YOU PUSHED AGAINST.
Let's look to our past and use what actually worked. The WPA worked in creating millions of jobs and it was only because of assholes like you who started crying about all the money we were spending that the WPA didn't continue. It was only after another round of massive investment by the gov't and more deficit spending during WWII that we finally got out of the Great Depression, a depression caused by massive tax cuts BTW.
All that deficit spending was then paid for by taxing the rich, to the tune of 91%, under a REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT. Last I checked the economy didn't crash either. We didn't lose a decade to poor growth. Actually the opposite happened. Millions of Americans prospered. The middle class grew, small businesses thrived, jobs were created, demand for all sorts of new innovative gadgets grew and everyone wanted a car in their garage which in turn got private businesses to expand and create the goods people wanted which lead to more jobs and a larger middle class and so on and so on and so on.
I'm sure you already know that Larry because you talk about the lack of demand in our economy but then you proscribe failed supply side solutions to a demand problem. You see Supply Side Economics does not work. Since 1980 when it became the vogue it's done nothing but create bubbles which you fail or could care less about preventing. If anything you have exacerbated the bubbles with your super genius scheme of deregulating the financial sector. Brilliant move there numbnuts.
Perhaps the US’ most fundamental strength is its resilience. We averted Depression in 2008/2009 by acting decisively. Now we can avert a lost decade by recognising economic reality.
The economic reality Larry is that it was idiots like you who created the mess and your solutions are complete and utter bullshit. No amount of positive thought or confidence that we will magically grow with more tax cuts will get us out of this problem you helped create. We aren't doing better because jackoffs like you prevented us from acting more decisively and investing MORE in our economy. We can avert ANOTHER lost decade (because frankly this last decade was a complete loss) by ignoring the 'sage' advice you're trying to shovel down our throats. The economic reality is we need JOBS. Tax cuts won't create them and never have. The private sector won't create them because they're not in the charity business, but the government can.
So how about you FUCK OFF and leave us to clean up the flaming bag of poo that was left on our doorstep in the only way that has EVER worked, by getting someone to clean it up and paying them to do it.