Financial Lobby: Stupid or Disingenuous? You Decide

By James Kwak

Courtesy of Matt Yglesias, from the Financial Services Forum:

“We write today to urge you to work together to reach a bipartisan agreement to avoid the approaching ‘fiscal cliff,’ and take concrete steps to restore the United States’ long-term fiscal footing.”

And later:

“But merely avoiding the fiscal cliff is not enough. We further urge you and your colleagues to enact legislation that truly restores the nation’s long-term fiscal soundness.”

It’s too obvious to waste more than a sentence spelling out what’s wrong here, so here it is: “Going over” the “fiscal cliff” is the single best thing we could do to “restore the United States’ long-term fiscal footing.” The CEOs of every big bank (who signed the letter) must know that. Right?

There are valid arguments against going over the fiscal cliff, but the national debt is not one of them. Going over the cliff would do more to address the long-term debt than anything any politician has proposed. And, as Yglesias points out, “If you care about inequality, jumping off the cliff offers by far the best chance for addressing it,” since it is the only plausible way to significantly increase taxes on the wealthy.

6 thoughts on “Financial Lobby: Stupid or Disingenuous? You Decide”

  2. The financial lobby should be encouraging all the people to vote Democrat for both the President, for the House and for the Senate.
    If the grid lock can be broken, then taxes can be increased on the rich and other taxes on e.g. gasoline can be introduced and cuts in the Military can be continued.
    If the Republicans are allowed to stop any constructive steps to balance the budget then we will have 4 more years of grid lock.

  3. I so agree with Michael Smith. If only the Dems could take back the House! And if the insane 60-vote need in the Senate could be abolished that would be truly “taking our country back!”

  5. Both! Printing $17trillion (and growing) out of the myst and funneling it into the offshore accounts of the predatorclass den of vipers and thieves in the finance oligarchs who are responsible for creating, perpetuating, and profiting from the most devastating economic crisis since the Great Depression is both stupid and disingenuous. But why let little things like facts and truth get in the way of massive marauding of wealth and wanton criminal activity of the predatorclass. The 99% has been, and is being robbed and pillaged by the predatorclass – the 1%. We either accept and tolerate this grotesque abuse or we don’t. If we do – then woe to us and our children for the fascists will surely conquer us. If we don’t – the buckle up and put your trays in the upright and fixed position – we’re about to enter some turbulence!

    Burn it all down! Reset! There’s no other option!!!

  6. i’m sure this is a not so subtle attempt at humor. well, “stupid is as stupid does” so go ahead…JUMP! obviously the solution is called A BUDGET. That is all that the ratings Agencies were saying when the USA was downgraded thus unleashing the biggest rally in treasuries since the 80’s. So find a forward that is PLAUSIBLE and…if it were me at least…DO NOT just appear like the evil bad guy in one of those classic slasher flics. the Federal Government has time…whether Wall Street does or does not depends on how deep they went into Social Media. And trust me…”there’s no way of knowing that.” We DO NOT want that ethos running Government. The point of the war effort/response to 9/11 is NOT to be Europe. China, yes. Brazil, yes. Sweden? Yes. But the EZ? No. One step at a time. And for the record i think both sides of the aisle…and the bureaucracy…know this. For example “if i commanded as majority owner of General Motors that a natural gas powered vehicle be used to save the Postal Service billions in its first year of operation i would….

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