Dean Baker discusses IOUSA

CEPR Co-director Dean Baker and Diane Rogers, Chief Economist of the Concord Coalition, had a discussion on the views expressed in the film, IOUSA.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• baker
• cepr
• coalition
• concord
• crisis
• dean
• fiscal
• healthcare
• iousa
• reform
• security
• social

[VVi11]

Dean Baker - I love this guy!

Comes out swinging - confrontational right off the bat.

Don't know if he's right about everything, but he nailed the housing bubble.

Oh, and communicates well. Plain and simple statements.

[TheSpineyOne]

So Dean baker, with his PHD in economics can learn a lot from a popular (right wing) economics book.

You're a moron.

I assume you're part of the Ron Paul cult.

Paul is a religious fundamentalist, a free market fundamentalist and a bigot. His ideology probably would have worked in the 18th century. I give him credit for exposing the fed though.

I'm sure you think that Paul is the chosen one because he predicted the financial crash. What you may not know is that Baker predicted it more accurately.

[boing3887]

i like how noone who is all crazy over IOUSA points out the fact that long-term deficits are the problem, not short-term. and that long-term deficits and debt are caused overwhelmingly by healthcare. this kind of fact-free, reality-blind analysis is what you get when you swallow everything that a wall street banker like pete peterson gives you without a thought

[lordennis01]

Concord Coalition just got owned

[boing3887]

i would add that dean baker predicted the crash in aug. 2002, which is a full 4 years before others who are given credit for predicting it.

[bapyou]

"You're right, I haven't read Baker"

Did you even watch this talk? To get a good idea of Baker's ideas/work, watch some of the longer format videos here on YT. The one that best presents Baker's most important contributions (IMO), is The Corporate Nanny State. What he details DID begin with Reagan. Pre-Reagan years were characterized by growing wages, etc. Watch it if you have the time.

[stevemcgee99]

You're right, I haven't read Baker. I'm sure you haven't read what I have. And with 500 character count limit we are not fully understanding each other.

I'm saying the bulk of the bad economic policy goes back to Wilson, and still much more was put in place before that. And it's roots are a thousand years old (at least).

Businesses consolidate into large corporations and get advantages. Only a large corp. can pollute - with permission from the federal government (the states fight it).

[bapyou]

"it goes way further back than Reagan."

Read Baker. You sound like one of the "free" marketeer drones whom Baker places into proper historical/economic context with the information he presents.

[stevemcgee99]

I have lost as much as most of us have from the inflation that pays for corporate bailouts, welfare, wars, subsidized industries, etc.

Baker is right that the centrally-planned economy is wired to accumulate wealth by 'robbing' all of us through taxes, restrictions on economic freedom, and inflation (increasing money supply). But it goes way further back than Reagan.

Big government is the #1 tool the rich and powerful use. Small, local government is how people protect themselves.

[bapyou]

"If you understand economics, you'd be against big government."

Then you should be against the government giving handouts (of various sorts) to corporate America. As Baker argues, since Ronald Reagan, the American economy has been wired to move money from the bottom to the top of the social/economic heap. Welfare for the wealthy. You don't have a leg to stand on against Baker's argument. Unless you're one who has benefitted from the situation as it has been for the past 29 years.

[golfprobro4eagles]

I see a cripple a black a gay and an idiot on the pannel they must be right.

[stevemcgee99]

Have you read the book?

I don't know if Paul is a religious fundamentalist, but probably not because his policies are in conflict with the rhetoric of religious fundamentalism.

'Free-market fundamentalism'? Market fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism are not similar concepts.

If you understand the difference between technical analysis and fundamental analysis - that's what a 'market fundamentalist is. They believe more in reality than in quantitative metrics.

Many predicted the crash.