"Give Us Money or We'll Shoot This Dow"

Before the hilarious Morgan Stanley report — which says that we’re “hovering dangerously close to a recession” and then says that “policy errors” have to do with their vote of no confidence in the U.S. markets, by which they mean “make us and/or give us much more money” and/or “don’t cut government spending” — came the Goldman Sachs report, which put forward the idea of the U.S. economy being a plane, a plane that can stall, just like a real plane, if GDP growth is below 2%. One of their top two concerns? “US fiscal tightening.” (In the end, just FYI, they put the possibility of a “new” recession at 1 in 3.) Basically we are in a weird position where, for maybe the first time, Republican talking points (if not actual Republican beliefs or actions) threaten Wall Street, which has, over the past few years, gotten everything it’s wanted from the White House. (And will continue to do so, not that there’s anything left to give.)

The funny thing in all this is that the ideas behind these economics are all, sure, made up. For instance, it’s an largely agreed-upon principle, though I don’t think necessarily a correct one, that if you gave everyone in America $1000 as a “stimulus,” that it would be a real disaster. (Some would hoard; some would waste; some would pay down debt: and these mixed results would, overall, be “bad” for the economy.) Yet bank analysts also think that curbing government spending is a mistake… when really, much of what the government does is hoard, waste and pay down debt. And what do corporations do with direct “stimulus” moneys? Same thing, pretty much! They sure don’t create jobs, we found out. The government doesn’t do so well at that either. In the end, we’d be better off distributing actual money in actual human hands. At least half of it would get paid directly to big corporations anyway. (Like Citibank! And Visa!)