SCALPING THE NEWS FOR GOLD

Where would all true liberals go for fodder if there were no New York Times, or The Nation, or the Washington Post? Like TV news rooms that start in the morning by scalping every newspaper for today's "features" - "stories we are working on" and other newsroom myths, I am stimulated to think by the Times. Which I could not say for the Toronto Sun or the Washington Times or Glen Beck.

So this morning, front page NY Times: "Companies keep saving the money they’ve borrowed at low rates as they wait for the economy to improve, but it is unlikely to improve if they keep saving," gets my juices going. Why should I worry that it will be a variation on my usual rant? The Times and the Post both rant about the same stuff. Frank Rich can be counted on to do an OpEd hatchet piece on the Tea Party. Why should I be any less predictable?

I can sometimes write what the Times won't, the exception being Paul Krugman. They are hot-wired to their otherwise thinking brains, to believe that all you have to do is "tweak" the perfect system and it gets more perfect. So they still preach the values of the free market system. All it needs is a little help. So fruitlessly, the Fed and Ben Bernanke continue to "stimulate" the economy with monetary action.
But, even to some of the opaque writers at the Times, it should be eminently clear that business can not, will not, and perhaps should not, lead the country out of despair. So we have the continuing story of low demand, low production and the eternal question:" why should any company spend money to chase a diminishing number of willing consumers. So the consumer waits until jobs become more secure before spending money, while the big companies wait for that suddenly frugal consumer to start spending. It is a classic "Mexican stand-off."

If governments in power were not so frightened of the voters' economic illiteracy, they would do what has to be done. First, they would have to abandon the worn-out orthodoxy that deficits are by definition - bad. What is "bad" is that the very governments that created the deficits with meaningless wars and foolish tax cuts, refuse to turn it all around. I continue to be appalled. I even hear myself echoing my least favourite President, Ronald Reagan, who said "there is no such thing as a free ride." After which of course he sent America into a future economic tailspin with the biggest spending spree in history to that point.

"Ah me" I sigh, as I shout my screed into a bottomless well of indifference. The well is so deep there are not even any echoes.

It is too late of course, for the administration to fly in the face of public opinion, no matter how warped by the incessant pounding of free market lobbyists,
and actually take charge of the economy. Isn't it obvious that monetary tweaking by the well-intentioned Bernanke is not making it happen. Only stimulus, and to hell with the deficit, can force the issue. Joint ventures between government and private money could turn the economy around.

But wait - all those companies who are hoarding the money they borrowed at zero interest are waiting for a takeover opportunity. The economy is swollen with cash, but it is in the wrong hands. The freakos of the Tea Party think the government should turn all their money back to the people. Funny - they never ask for private business to do that. Amusing!!