William K Black: Deprogramming Progressives Indoctrinated into Supporting Austerity

[bornskeptic]

A little bit of economics can be a truly terrible thing, for the introductory classes in micro and macro-economics are the most dogmatic and myth-filled part of the neoliberal curriculum. Dogmas that have been falsified for 75 years (such as austerity) are taught as revealed truth. The poor indoctrinated student is then launched into the world "knowing" that austerity is the answer and that mass unemployment and prolonged recessions are small prices to be paid (by others) to achieve the holy grail of a balanced budget. Students are taught that national budgets are really just like household budgets.

These dogmas are not simply false, they are self-destructive and cruel. Neoliberal economics is so bad and has gone downhill at such a rapid rate that it now worships the economic analog to bleeding patients -- austerity -- as a response to a Great Recession. Millions of people are indoctrinated annually into believing this long-falsified nonsense, and that includes people who consider themselves progressives.

The remarkable aspect of neoliberal economics is that the power of its myth has survived for many progressives even after its failed dogmas caused massive economic destruction, massive elite fraud with impunity, and crony capitalism so corrupt that it cripples democracy. Indeed, the brainwashing they received is so effective that even after the eurozone ran a massive experiment with austerity that proved (again) to be a catastrophic failure they remain neo-liberal acolytes. This column discusses three examples that exemplify the problem.

(much more)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/deprogramming-progressive_b_2375358.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Over the past four years we've watched the Congressional Republicans trying to subvert the economy in hopes of preventing President Obama's re-election. Bizarre as that spectacle was, far more bizarre is the spectacle of people who claim to be progressives advocating "going over the fiscal cliff and staying there." Virtually no economist of any ideological stripe questions that following that course would mean a recession with more than 2 million workers losing their jobs and unemployment returning to somewhere around 9% or maybe 10%, 2 million peole losing their unemployment benefits, and numerous other ugly consequences. It is true that the CBO did project that growth would subsequently resume towards the end of the year, but that would only mean that we'd be back where we were a couple years ago, with the excruciatingly slow progress we've been making since then undone. How can this be wished for? Shouldn't we have learned something about austerity from the Europeans, even if we've forgotten the lessons Dr. Keynes taught us?