Wall Street’s Euthanasia of Industry | Michael Hudson.
Much as I’ve admire Dr. Hudson’s writings in Counterpunch, in this he presents such a dire picture of what’s going on in the debt ceiling talks, and the U.S. economy in general, that it is hard for me to believe in such cynicism. I think it’s far more likely that Dr. Hudson is expressing the views of the embittered left wing of the party. These are the people whose views tend to be even less popular than those of Michelle Bachman. When these crybabies don’t get what they want they generally start throwing mud and stay home in droves on election day. If they would put as much money and effort into into selling their views as their opponents do, they might get somewhere, but they often can’t be bothered. Dr. Hudson at least makes his views known, but he does it here in a way that makes people cringe.
I may be totally wrong about this but my take on the President is that he is the canniest player in Washington. He beat the Clintons at their own game, by taking a longer view of things and holding his cards in his vest pocket. He has no choice to get the debt ceiling raised but by making a deal with the House Republicans. He knows they know they cannot afford to to vote for default. He also knows they can’t be seen backing down by their radical supporters. He is trying to show the folks in the center, all of whom still need convincing, how little interest the GOP has in ordinary people’s concerns, and he is doing an admirable job of it. He is pushing the Republican party so far out on the limb that they will be low hanging fruit when the election rolls around in 2012.