Rachel Maddow: On Austerity Measures during Economic Hard Times

Part 5 of Rachel Maddow's lecture at Rutgers University on April 13, 2011 - sponsored by the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

Here she talks about a topic her show has covered at length - austerity measures, and when its appropriate to implement them. Rachel does not have patience for people who think it's good eliminate the social safety net of our nation when they have never needed it - and neither do I.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Rachel Maddow
• Maddow
• MSNBC
• journalism
• The Rachel Maddow Show
• Wisconcin
• Budget
• Budget Wars
• Austerity
• Austerity Measures
• Capitalism
• Debt
• Debt Ceiling
• Debt Spending
• Economy
• Economics
• Class
• Poor
• Poverty
• Rutgers
• Rutgers University

[casper1918]

This moronic lesbian leftist has no idea how economies work.  A little hate monger for MSNBC.

[vbanti2]

@casper1918 there is no room for hate on my wall. i am marking you as spam - strike 2 gets you blocked. 

[mcsenget]

A decision we made as a country? Hmm. When did we do that? Some of us "as a country" made the decision to trade in gold instead but we're not allowed to do that for many transactions.

Ron Paul's case isn't just good in the abstract. He's the one exposing the banking cartel for what it is. She is romanticizing it as an institution of the people which it is not at all.

[soylentgreenb]

If the recession wasn't caused by a tidal wave of debt, fraud and abuse and if the government ran a surplus during the good years it would make some sense to deficit spend in a recession.

You can't cure too much debt with more debt any more than you can cure heroin withdrawal by shooting up with more heroin.

[gfsugar2plus]

@vbanti2 But it's not spam. It's a comment and what you are trying to do is censorship. You don't like casper's message so you try to block it - typical socialist.

[MadFaxer]

Yes, I know she is so liberal and so Trendy that she is taking on the cause of the global quantitative easing deathstar with fervor. But that doesn't matter. Look how good and Trendy she looks. What a good little liberal, give up everything and you can be trendy.. just be sure you do what I tell you and not follow your heart that bleeds to pass on the expression of Liberty in our world because of the brushfires ablaze in our minds.

[UponInfinity]

@soylentgreenb Agreed. This whole spend during recession, save during boom is a falacy. If anyone has ever seen the U.S. national debt graph, you would know that spending is never cut during any time. Every year, the debt goes up, good economy or bad.

[plasydanarchy]

How does Ms. Maddow explain the recovery from the deep recession/depression of 1920-21. In 1920 unemployment had jumped from 4 percent to nearly 12 percent, and GNP declined 17 percent. Harding cut the government's budget nearly in half between 1920 and 1922 and tax rates were slashed for all income groups. The national debt was reduced by one-third. By late summer 1921, signs of recovery were already visible. The next year, unemployment was down to 6.7 percent and was only 2.4 percent by 1923.

[mannyvelo]

I can smell the austerity coming. In 3 years Obama has added 5 t-t-t-t-t-trillion dollars of debt to this country. Fancy speeches and lack of action will do that. DEBT AND DEFICITS = TAXES. THEY'RE JUST DEFERRED TAXES. OUR UNBORN CHILDREN WILL BE PAYING FOR THE RECKLESS SPENDING BY BOTH SIDES OF THE ISLE! Just think, we had a revolution for much less than what's going on now.

[mjbarrowful]

If people are not spending money then so be it. The government has no money to spend in the first place. They have to get it from the people who are broke. The Fed is not a solution either. What kind of nonsense is "the Fed can just print the money we need to help the economy?"

[krillin876]

Social Shocks of Capitalism??? wtf