How do we even begin? Join the Bern!

(D)ude: Man! The Ronald Reagan and Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton presidencies laid out the foundation for free market economics that led to the financial crises we have been enduring since trickle down became an anthem in the 1980s. According to the Nobel laureate economist Joseph E. Stiglitz,

“Inequality weakens aggregate demand and the economy. America’s growing inequality was moving money from the bottom of the pyramid to the top, and since those at the top spent less of their money than those at the bottom, this weakened overall demand. During the 90s we masked the deficiency by creating the tech bubble—a boom in investment. But with the breaking of the tech bubble, the economy fell into recession. Bush [#43] responded with a tax cut aimed at the rich. With consumers worried about their future, the hoped-for stimulus to the economy from Bush’s tax cuts was weak. Piling on a further capital-gains tax cut—on top of one that had been given a few years before by President Clinton—only encouraged more speculation. Since its benefits went overwhelmingly to the very top, this tax cut was particularly ineffective and also strongly increased inequality.”   

(M)an: Dude! That passage is from an introductory chapter out of  Stiglitz’s 2015 book entitled The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them?

D: Man! Yes! I'm reading from page 4! It is a colloquial masterpiece, don’t you think? I mean, it’s groundbreaking scholarship for sure, but very simple to understand. I feel compelled to vote in the upcoming presidential primaries for Bernie Sanders because of the striking similarity in

messaging he shares with Stiglitz—that, since Reagan, the top tenth of the 1% manufacture policies and politics that favor the financial sector over societal fairness. As Stiglitz continues writing on page 5,

“Inadequate fiscal policies put undue burden on monetary policies, which are the responsibility of the Federal Reserve. The Fed can (sometimes) stimulate the economy by lowering interest rates and making regulations more lax. But these monetary policies are dangerous. Their prescriptions should come with a big label:  Use only with caution, and under close supervision of adults who understand the full risks. Unfortunately, those in charge of monetary policy had not read any such label; and they were naïve market fundamentalists—believing that markets are always efficient and stable. While they underestimated the risks that their policies posed to the economy—and even to the government’s budget—they didn’t seem to care about the inequality that was growing day by day.The result is now well known:they unleashed a bubble,and their policies led to an unprecedented growth in inequality.

The Fed kept the economy churning with a policy of low interest rates and lax regulations. But it worked only by creating a housing bubble. It should have been apparent to all that the housing bubble and the consumption boom to which it led could only be a temporary palliative. Bubbles always break. Our consumption binge meant that the bottom 80 percent of Americans were on average spending 110 percent of their income. By 2005 as a country we were borrowing more than $2 billion a day from abroad. It was not sustainable.”        

M: Dude! The Humans of New York guy, Brandon Stanton, was a Power Player of the Week on  Chris Wallace’s Fox News Sunday show last year, August 30, 2015, and did not share the latest news about his philanthropic undertaking alongside Syeda Ghulam Fatima, the Lahore-based female human rights activist fighting on behalf of bonded laborers in Pakistan. The resulting fundraiser that generated $2 million dollars in donations for Fatima’s organization, The Bonded Labour Liberation Front’s relief efforts, was never followed up on by the United States Press Corps. There is no accountability in charity work is there? What became of the approximate two hundred million rupees raised for Fatima’s cause?      

D: Man! We already lack campaign finance reform in the United States and now you want charities held accountable for the promises that they make on behalf of the people they represent? How do we even begin?    

M: Dude! Vote for Bernie Sanders!