Category Archives: Uncategorized

By William K. Black

Yesterday, I wrote an article entitled Why Progressive Austerians do the Greatest Damage. The article was prompted by a column written by Brad Plumer. Plumer commented on my article, expressing his disagreement with my characterization of his position.

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By William K. Black

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder secured passage of “Public Act 4, the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act.  The Act allows the Governor to appoint emergency managers (EMs) for any government in Michigan.  The EM has unlimited dictatorial powers.  He can – and the EMs appointed by Snyder have exercised this power – effectively eliminate the elected government.  Republicans have blocked a challenge to this remarkable law; arguing that the petitions had too small a font.  Snyder has used the EM power to take over primarily cities with African-American majorities.

Chris Savage, writing in The Nation, quoted the Benton Harbor EM’s putsch:

In April the Benton Harbor EM, Joe Harris, decreed: “Absent prior express written authorization and approval by the Emergency Manager”—himself—‘no City Board, Commission or Authority shall take any action for or on behalf of the City whatsoever other than: i) Call a meeting to order, ii) Approve of meeting minutes, iii) Adjourn a meeting.’” The move in effect abolished Benton Harbor’s elected City Commission and replaced it with an unelected bureaucrat, perhaps the first time this has happened in US history.

I grew up in Michigan so I follow Snyder’s assault on democracy and African-Americans fairly closely.  I can now report that European “austerians” are following Snyder’s lead.

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By Michael Hudson

Paul Krugman is widely appreciated for his New York Times columns criticizing Republican demands for fiscal austerity. He rightly argues that cutting back public spending will worsen the economic depression into which we are sinking. And despite his partisan Democratic Party politicking, he warned from the outset in 2009 that President Obama’s modest counter-cyclical spending program was not sufficiently bold to spur recovery.

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By Klaus Hagendorf

Below is a statement from the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi (Press conference, Barcelona, 3 Mai 2012):

“What does this growth compact mean? It refers to a variety of ideas that have been expressed in a number of places, and I certainly don’t claim any patent on this concept. But, if one had to summarise, it means basically three things. First of all, there must be a continuation of structural reforms in all the economies of the euro area. These structural reforms are different for different countries, but one can find some common themes. The first common area is the set of structural reforms in product markets. Our minds go back to the need to complete the single market as a first step, and to increase competition. You have to reform the product markets and the labour markets together, because you have to have more competition in both. Labour market reforms have three features: first they should increase flexibility, second they should increase mobility, and third, they should also increase equity in the labour market. Now we basically have a situation which is imbalanced against young people. Youth unemployment rates are going up and this is because of distortions in the labour market at the present time. You also want to make sure that you have an unemployment insurance system that makes these mobility and flexibility requirements realistic.”

When economic experts talk this way about the necessary measures to assure the exit from the economic crisis, I can’t help it but get the impression that what these “experts” have in mind looks something like this:

The Future European Worker – mobile, flexible, ready for everything at an affordable price.

Following the daily news there come protests from all sites.  My studies in the MIME project have led me to the clear answer:  Against this doctrine we have to wage the strategy of “Controlling Capital.”  To learn more, please visit http://eurodos.free.fr/mime or http://eurodos.free.fr/cocnet