Summary: America's Financial Crisis: Week of August 29

6 New Items including:

• Can we afford endless war?
• This Is Not a Recovery

David Culver, ed., Evergreene Digest

Lisa Benson

This Is Not a Recovery, Paul Krugman, New York Times | NY

• This isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact.
• GDP Revised Down: Economy Grew At A Much Slower Pace Than Previously Thought
• Tax Jujitsu: Why Democrats Should Propose a “People’s Tax Cut”
• Jobless? Your leaders are at ease with that.

Fiddling While the US Economy Burns, Danny Schechter, Consortium News

• "We know we live in hard times that are on the verge of getting harder with 500,000 new claims for unemployment last week, a recent record. The stock market may be over for now as fear and panic drives small investors out. Big corporations hoard stashes of cash rather then hire workers. The D-Word (depression) is back in play."
• The Forgotten Foreclosure Crisis
• The Horror Show
• America Goes Dark

The Best Oligarchy Money can Buy, Anthony Dimaggio, ZComm, in Axis of Logic

• Revolving Door between Government and the Private Sector Reaches Appalling Highs
• “Three of every four gas and oil lobbyists [have] worked for the federal government.” --Washington Post

Economics for the Rest of Us: Debunking the Science That Makes Life Dismal ~ Moshe Adler, Chat with Moshe Adler about his new book, hosted by Max Fraad Wolff, Progressive Reader

• Filled with lively examples—from food riots in Indonesia to eminent domain in Connecticut, and everyone from Adam Smith to Jeremy Bentham to Larry Summers—Economics for the Rest of Us shows how today’s dominant economic theories evolved, how they explicitly favor the rich over the poor, and why they’re not the only or best options. Written for anyone with an interest in understanding contemporary economic thinking—and why it is dead wrong
• Economics for the Rest of Us offers a foundation for a fundamentally more equal economic system.

Attacking Social Security, Paul Krugman, New York Times | NY

• Social Security’s attackers claim that they’re concerned about the program’s financial future. But their math doesn’t add up, and their hostility isn’t really about dollars and cents. Instead, it’s about ideology and posturing. And underneath it all is ignorance of or indifference to the realities of life for many Americans.
• Defense spending far outpaces spending on Social Security
• DC Politicians Beware: If You Mess with Social Security, You're Toast

Jobs: Permanently Gone? How to Reverse the Trend? Andy Driscoll, Truth to Tell<>, KFAI-FM | MN

• Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen  talk about the reality behind the recession, job losses and permanent low wages, and how to even out the economy with portions of a talk by Economist Dean Baker to the annual meeting of the JobsNow Coalition and a talk with local jobs and economic policy advocates.
• The jobs emergency