Consumer Expenditure, Inequality, and War

The Economic Policy Institute tend to be a little too liberal for my taste, but I have always found them solid in their statistical presentation with all due care to maintain accuracy. Their new Study out therefore bothers me. All economists concern themselves too excessively with the broader numbers, always worried about potential Recessive conditions; such numbers mostly appearing suddenly by magic act which is hard to quantify. The consumer expenditures data, on the other hand, may present the more reliable measure of the health of the economy. A different definition of Recession, one based upon consumer expenditures, could seriously state We have been in a Recession since 2000-2001 (Economic disagreement on the real Starting Date), and that the Bush Tax Cuts actually worsened the impact of the Recession because they muted Wage Demands necessary for correction of the Recession.

Chris Dillow asks the very important question of whether We should worry about relative poverty or inequality. One can escape relative poverty, and still leave the great mass of citizens in the misery of Want. Inequality can be righted artificially by doctrinarian redistribution, which could potentially leave All in the misery of Want (Historians need check out the development of the Two-Tier Wage system of Stalin’s Soviet Union–his recognition that loyalty must be bought under conditions of oppression). The intrinsic difference of righting inequality rather than relative poverty stands as All are united under equalization to destroy the misery of Want, while cure of relative poverty splinters popular support into Vested Interest groups. Which will eliminate the misery of Want in the shortest time?

Cactus at Angry Bear has a very balanced Post on Withdrawal from Iraq. Most Readers have not read my Comments prior to the invasion of Iraq, or worse yet, the book I published back in the late 1990s which provided the Caution that any military incursion by the United States should never last more than 90 Days; a statement that Leave-taking was a Must, whether Incursion goals were attained or not. It does not matter whether civil war will come to Iraq or not, Americans will still be opposed and that opposition financed by enemies of the United States; immaterial to the origin nation of those enemies (the United States being the target, not any national Government We might desire to aid). lgl