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| This is the pic that accompanies the article below. I guess it's to show Trump as bestriding a ruined landscape |
The Nobel Prize organisation is leftist. How could be otherwise? It's Scandinavian. Their bias shows in their Peace and Literature prizes. And often in the Economics prize as well.
Below is Nobel economics laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz who joins on the hard Left his fellow columnist and fellow laureate Paul Krugman of the New York Times. Both these esteemed laureates are deep sufferers of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
But even for the hard Left, Stiglitz's article below is remarkably sloppy. It's polemics, and poor polemics at that.
I'm reading it right now in print, and I'll take it para-by-para from the online version, linked below. (Or click here if you want to have it sit side-by-side with my comments).
But even for the hard Left, Stiglitz's article below is remarkably sloppy. It's polemics, and poor polemics at that.
I'm reading it right now in print, and I'll take it para-by-para from the online version, linked below. (Or click here if you want to have it sit side-by-side with my comments).
Para 1: "rammed through" a tax cut. Another way of saying this is "Congress passed a tax cut". Why the emotive "rammed"?
Para 2: "Business and financial leaders' unbridled greed...". Sigh… "unbridled greed". Really? Sure, driven by profit motives as is the capitalist system, which, for all its faults, remains the best economic system in the world. Then there's this uncomfortable fact: most business leaders today are of the Left, they're Democrats. In the case of the big tech giants they are universally of the Left, indeed often far left. How does that fit the narrative of greedy capitalists = nasty Republicans.?
The US is "…the most unequal of all advanced economies…". No it's not. If you include non-salary government transfers, the US is "neck and neck with Spain and every Scandinavian country and less unequal than Britain, Greece and Ireland." [Ref here]
Para 6: "A decade from now, total US income will most likely be lower than it would have been without the tax bill." This is pure speculation, and that from someone with a poor record in predicting this year's national income, let alone income in ten years' time. (He predicted zero growth this year vs the likely 3-4% it will be).
Para 9: "… neither immigration nor imports have caused most of the economic problems …. The loss of industrial jobs … is largely due to technological change." I used to believe that too. 80% of the job losses were due to technology, we were told. Then I started to think about all those factories moving to Mexico and China. In China I saw it with mine own eyes: Australian companies I actually helped to move their machinery and equipment to China. (This was early 80s).
Other studies show what one suspects: that the shift of manufacturing capacity overseas was the major contributor to manufacturing unemployment in America. The overseas migration of manufacturing was speeded by NAFTA and China's joining the WTO. Both were pushed and promoted by the Left's darling, slick Willie Clinton. [Ref here]
Para 12: "Is the murder of 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue the harbinger of an American Kristallnacht?" This is the grossest calumny. A sleazy and not-so-subtle suggestion that Trump is an anti-Semite. Trump is father of a Jewish daughter, grandfather of Jewish grandchildren, president of the most pro-Israel administration in generations. To suggest he's anti-Semitic? Shame on Stiglitz.
There's more I could say; there are howlers in every single paragraph. But I'm done for now. Read the whole thing: Trump's year of chaos manifests in bad policies and worse politics
