Tag Archives: peterson

Peterson Thinks We Need Austerity While He Lives It Up!

By Joe Firestone

The Peterson Foundation reacted to the President’s budget document with a report repeating its usual whining about the debt problem, and the need to cut entitlements. Here are quotations from the report and my explanations of why they are ridiculous deficit/debt terrorist nonsense.

While today’s deficits are much lower than those during the financial crisis and recession, over the next ten years debt will remain at historically high levels under the policies outlined in the President’s budget. Over the long term, our debt is on a rising and unsustainable path that harms our economy and threatens our future standard of living.

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Blocking a bad idea that enriches the rich: Peterson, Austerity, and the Washington Consensus

By William K. Black

John Williamson, a Peterson Institute “senior fellow” coined the term “the Washington Consensus” at a conference in 1989.

Williamson joined the Institute in 1981 when it was founded.  Pete Peterson is the Republican billionaire from Wall Street who has dedicated his life to proselytizing for lower taxes on the wealthy, stringent spending cuts in social programs, and privatizing Social Security – the unholy grail of Wall Street that would provide our largest banks with hundreds of billions of dollars in additional investment fees.  Peterson has funded many groups to evangelize for these neo-liberal dogmas.

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Pete Peterson and the Deficit Hawks Teach Lawmakers Deep Fiscal Irresponsibility

By Michael Hoexter, Ph.D.

We have come to accept in the Orwellian world of mass communication and media spin that pressure groups and political organizations name themselves in ways that contradict their actual mission.  Continue reading