[From Rick Marken (2012.11.02.0840)]
It turns out that right wingers, who are the one’s who are always puffing up about how they are the only ones who really know how the economy works (unlike us weak minded lefties) are not only starting to be publicly shown to be as wrong as I always knew they are but they are actively preventing their wrongness from being exposed. Here’s an article that describes how the Congressional Research Service did a study (apparently the same one I did) that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth. Since a negative correlation between these variables is a central tenet of right wing economic theory, the right wing did the only thing they really do know how to do: they prevented publication of the report. Here’s the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/business/questions-raised-on-withdrawal-of-congressional-research-services-report-on-tax-rates.html?emc=eta1
And in other news, there as a nice op-ed piece in the LA Times showing that raising the minimum wage actually improves the economies where this happens:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-cohen-income-inequality-20121101,0,3918379.story
Both of these findings – no relation between top marginal tax rates and growth (there is actually a pretty good positive relationship) and an improvement in the economy with an increase in minimum wage – are completely inconsistent with right wing views of how the economy works. But they are exactly what is expected from a closed -loop view of the economy, which is not really left wing, just right;-)
Best
Rick
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Richard S. Marken PhD
rsmarken@gmail.com
www.mindreadings.com
from Dick Robertson, 2012.11.2.0601CDT
Hi Rick,
Yeah, but like you say, if you’re arguing to a foregone conclusion there’s no way to see the facts.
But, have you had a look at Paul Krugman’s laest book, END THIS DEPRESSION NOW ? It’s dynamkte. He has a saying, Your purchaes is my income, and my purchases are your income. Sound familiar, hun?
Best,
Dick R
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----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Marken rsmarken@GMAIL.COM
Date: Friday, November 2, 2012 10:41 am
Subject: What’s wrong with being right?
To: CSGNET@LISTSERV.ILLINOIS.EDU
[From Rick Marken (2012.11.02.0840)]
It turns out that right wingers, who are the one’s who are
always puffing up about how they are the only ones who really
know how the economy works (unlike us weak minded lefties) are
not only starting to be publicly shown to be as wrong as I
always knew they are but they are actively preventing their
wrongness from being exposed. Here’s an article that
describes how the Congressional Research Service did a study
(apparently the same one I did) that found no correlation
between top tax rates and economic growth. Since a negative
correlation between these variables is a central tenet of right
wing economic theory, the right wing did the only thing they
really do know how to do: they prevented publication of the
report. Here’s the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/business/questions-raised-on-
withdrawal-of-congressional-research-services-report-on-tax-
rates.html?emc=eta1
And in other news, there as a nice op-ed piece in the LA Times
showing that raising the minimum wage actually improves the
economies where this happens:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-cohen-
income-inequality-20121101,0,3918379.story
Both of these findings – no relation between top marginal tax
rates and growth (there is actually a pretty good positive
relationship) and an improvement in the economy with an increase
in minimum wage – are completely inconsistent with right wing
views of how the economy works. But they are exactly what is
expected from a closed -loop view of the economy, which is not
really left wing, just right;-)
Best
Rick
Richard S. Marken PhD
rsmarken@gmail.com
www.mindreadings.com
[From Rick Marken (2012.11.03.1010)]
Hi Dick
From Dick Robertson, 2012.11.2.0601CDT
Yeah, but like you say, if you’re arguing to a foregone conclusion there’s no way to see the facts.
I think what’s most revealing about this is that it shows pretty clearly that right wingers are not controlling for high minded things like improving the economy. If they were then the release of this report would not have been a disturbance. But their response to the report makes it clear that they are controlling greed, pure and simple. You can’t conceal your intentions from the Test for the Controlled Variable.
But, have you had a look at Paul Krugman’s latest book, END THIS DEPRESSION NOW ? It’s dynamkte. He has a saying, Your purchase is my income, and my purchases are your income. Sound familiar, hun?
I haven’t read that book but after reading the “Spirit Level” I’ve written off reading stuff that I already agree with. Too depressing. Krugman does have a response to the suppression of this report on his blog. Though I typically agree with Krugman and like the fact that he always refers to data, I am kind of disappointed in him and economists in general for letting this “taxes are recessionary” meme persist. I recall Krugman himself saying something like it’s not a good idea to raise taxes while we are in a recession. That may be true for taxes on middle and lower income but it is definitely not true for the top incomes.
Best
Rick
···
–
Richard S. Marken PhD
rsmarken@gmail.com
www.mindreadings.com