The Great Recession, Part II. The second dip cometh?

Yakking blogging about Ecuador, it turns out, was a wonderful distraction from depressing stuff, like Joseph Stiglitz's column, in which he writes that instead of putting "America back to work by stimulating the economy; end the mindless wars; rein in military and drug costs; and raise taxes, at least on the very rich" the fanatical free market ideology of the right is instead:

pushing for even more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, together with expenditure cuts in investments and social protection that put the future of the U.S. economy in peril and that shred what remains of the social contract. Meanwhile, the U.S. financial sector has been lobbying hard to free itself of regulations, so that it can return to its previous, disastrously carefree, ways.

When Stiglitz writes thus, it is time to worry. To really, really, worry.

So, what are the Democrats and President Obama doing to counter this ideological offensive from the right?  Mark Thoma is utterly disappointed:

We can do better than this, but it takes leadership and a willingness to fight rather than acquiesce, traits that are far too short in supply in the current administration.

 Hmmm ... so, does this mean that Europe, which doesn't suffer from the ideological right, but is cursed by the ideological left, any better?  Yes, Professor Stiglitz?

But matters are little better in Europe. As Greece and other countries face crises, the medicine du jour is simply timeworn austerity packages and privatization, which will merely leave the countries that embrace them poorer and more vulnerable. This medicine failed in East Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere, and it will fail in Europe, too. Indeed, it has already failed in Ireland, Latvia, and Greece.

Oh, come on.  "Can't anybody here play this game?"

 Stigltiz says there is a way out, but that path is blocked by the ideologues from the right:

an economic-growth strategy supported by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Growth would restore confidence that Greece could repay its debts, causing interest rates to fall and leaving more fiscal room for further growth-enhancing investments. Growth itself increases tax revenues and reduces the need for social expenditures, such as unemployment benefits. And the confidence that this engenders leads to still further growth.Regrettably, the financial markets and right-wing economists have gotten the problem exactly backward: They believe that austerity produces confidence, and that confidence will produce growth. But austerity undermines growth, worsening the government's fiscal position, or at least yielding less improvement than austerity's advocates promise. On both counts, confidence is undermined, and a downward spiral is set in motion

I was positive Paul Krugman would have a succinct bottom-line, and he didn't fail:

what we now have is a political drive that will, in effect, undo all those institutional changes that prevented the Great Recession into turning into another Great Depression.

It is a good thing I do not have to worry about stuffing my money into the mattress--have nothing to spare after paying the bills!  Not complaining though--at least I have money to pay those damned bills ...