Economists Don't Usually Make Good Speculators, Because

The Planet Will Continue To Cook.

Wealthy Americans Who Benefit Hugely From A System Rigged In Their Favor React With Hysteria To Anyone Who Points Out Just How Rigged The System Is.

It Has Been Obvious All Along, To Anyone Paying Attention, That The Politicians Shouting Loudest About Deficits Are Actually Using Deficit Hysteria As A Cover Story For Their Real Agenda, Which Is Top-down Class Warfare. To Put It In Romneyesque Terms, It's All About Finding An Excuse To Slash Programs That Help People Who Like To Watch Nascar Events, Even While Lavishing Tax Cuts On People Who Like To Own Nascar Teams.

Europe Is Often Held Up As A Cautionary Tale, A Demonstration That If You Try To Make The Economy Less Brutal, To Take Better Care Of Your Fellow Citizens When They're Down On Their Luck, You End Up Killing Economic Progress. But What European Experience Actually Demonstrates Is The Opposite: Social Justice And Progress Can Go Hand In Hand.

Until The Great Depression, Most Economists Clung To A Vision Of Capitalism As A Perfect Or Nearly Perfect System. That Vision Wasn’t Sustainable In The Face Of Mass Unemployment, But As Memories Of The Depression Faded, Economists Fell Back In Love With The Old, Idealized Vision Of An Economy In Which Rational Individuals Interact In Perfect Markets.