As I understand economics, prices inflate because the demand for things exceeds the supply. So, how to increase the supply of goods? Get investors to invest in more production, and hire more workers. How to incentivize investors? Lower interest rates so they can borrow affordably.
Why is the Federal Reserve raising interest rates? Aren’t they doing the exact opposite to cure inflation? Some believe that lowering interest rates enables consumers to buy more stuff which increases demand over supply. So, lowering interest rates must be targeted exclusively to increasing production, not increasing consumption. Banks can do that, if they get directed to from the Federal Reserve. The Fed must tie lower interest rates to investments in farms, factories and businesses.
If the Fed can’t do that, then Congress must step in. The interest rate hikes are leading us toward recession.
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
In the New York Times (1/10/23), Michelle Goldberg’s column has alerted us to Gov. DeSantis’s mission to stifle liberal progressive thinking, in Florida’s colleges and universities.
He’s initiating these efforts against New College of Florida, an outstanding progressive institution. He’s pursuing this by appointing the most reactionary conservatives to their board of directors, to bring about a stupendous change.
DeSantis has designed Chris Rufo, who originated the Right’s attacks on Critical Race Theory, and other culture war issues, to begin this transformation and thought control into more conservative lines.
Rufo has often talked about a “long march through the institutions” of Florida.
Obviously, Gov. DeSantis wants to reduce/eliminate progressive thinking in the state’s institutions of higher learning; but how many MAGA governors would go this far?
WILLIAM MONTGOMERY, Cincinnati, Ohio
Many thanks to John Young for yet another column pointing out Lauren Boebert”s complete and utter lack of a moral compass [“Thoughts and Prayers and Vicious Slurs,” 1/1-15/23 TPP]. As a constituent of hers, I and others had hoped that her razor-thin victory in a 7-9 point Republican district might give her pause to perhaps reconsider her hateful rhetoric. Sadly, that has not happened, nor does it seem likely. Still planting seeds of hate, then claiming to be the victim. But, after the debacle of the many ballots for Speaker of the House, you all know her too! Sadly, Boebert’s 558-vote victory included approximately 600 ballots who did not cast a vote for either her or Adam Frisch. Quite possibly Rs who could no longer give her their vote, but could not bring themselves to vote for a D. Art Cullen is right, Democrats have a lot of work to do in rural America!
KURT THOMPSON, Molina, Colo.
I very much appreciated most of Mark Anderson’s informative and insightful article “Republicans Are Coming After Your Social Security” [1/1-15/23 TPP], except for one very shocking statement. Anderson says, “… the US lacks the robust workforce it needs to firmly support the Social Security System long term. Perhaps the Dems’ longtime support of virtually unlimited abortion should be relaxed a bit in this context. The elderly need the young in our current economic arrangement.”
Really? In order to produce more young taxpayers to support Social Security, we should require women to carry unwanted pregnancies to completion? I searched the text for signs of irony, but I found none. Apparently Anderson is serious here. And his suggestion carries overtones of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Anyone writing an article on this topic would certainly know that we already have a method for stabilizing Social Security into the indefinite future—removing the cap on the Social Security payroll tax so that the wealthy pay their fair share. Even putting aside questions of equity, there’s simply no need to force women to bear children they don’t want in order to fund Social Security. We have a better, fairer, and much simpler solution. We need only for Congress to implement it.
JOE DEMBOSKI, Seattle, Wash.
This Hamline University art teacher thing [see “Academic Drama, Meet Unsubstantiated Islamophobia” by Gene Lyons, page 7] is the last straw. Somehow, the idea has got going around that society needs to kowtow to religions. Now hear this: I do not care what you “believe.” I do not care if you are “offended.” Go home and shut up.
MARIA ROSE, Indianapolis, Ind.
I note that some of your columnists and readers agree that global warning is THE big issue of our time. I would like to remind them that part of gauging the proportion of a problem is taking the duration into account. Most of our problems are petty human problems like abortion or issues like creeping fascism, that can be set straight in a few years with a revolution or a war. Global warming will affect things for awhile, but given that we will soon deplete all available fossils and that there were ice ages a few thousand years ago, we can safely predict that it will simmer down on a similar time scale. However, our ongoing decimation of an estimated million species is making a wound that will take, to steal a loose estimate from E. O. Wilson, 10 million years to heal to a balanced ecosystem. That will surely be our greatest legacy.
T. LINCOLN BALLARD, Missoula, Mont.
Robert Kuttner’s story about the Rural Turnaround [12/15/22 TPP] had a lot of good ideas but he didn’t mention climate change. Rural people love the land and the animals on it. They should get some help from the federal government to help save the world. They should be encouraged to build dams to store flood water, replenish their aquifers, and get them through droughts. They should get photobioreactors so they can grow oil from algae to replace fossil fuels. They could get help producing methane and alcohol from manure and agricultural waste to make DME (dimethyl ether) to run all of their equipment that is 96% cleaner than diesel. They should receive help to sequester carbon and rebuild the soil using no-till regenerative agriculture. They should get help using agrivoltaics. They need infrastructure to distribute power from windmills and PV panels mounted high so they can still grow food and run livestock under them. Instead of being forced to sell out to agribusinesses, rural farmers could be the next energy tycoons. Reversing Climate change will require rural America, and that will require Democratic help.
JERRY BRULE, Eugene Ore.
Ninety years have passed since FDR took a fresh deck into Washington, D.C., and brought everyone to the table to win.
Unfortunately, as the decades have gone by, Americans have forgotten the difference between globalism and globalization.
Ro Khanna calls his theme “economic patriotism.” [“Ro Khanna on a Lonely Campaign on the Back Roads” by Art Cullen, 1/1-15/23 TPP]
Sounds democratic and timely.
CLARK J. NICHOLS, Henniker, N.H.
The Supreme Court has fallen into disrepute as a result of over-the-top shoddy thinking. nnThe Washington Post article by Emma Brown and Rosalind S. Heldeman, “For John Eastman and Clarence Thomas, an intellectual kinship” (12/23/22), is illuminating:
Claremont College graduate Eastman clerked for Yale graduate Justice Thomas and they became friends with similar passions for “natural” given rights, leading to choosing Amendment 5 (due process) over Amendment 14 (privilege and immunity), in interpreting and understanding The Constitution.
Their shoddy thinking has brought to us lying about a stolen election leading to insurrection, with more to come? and taking away Roe v Wade abortion rights, with more to come?
They are now dangerously out of step with Americans’ love of LIBERTY.
I believe that DEFENSE of LIBERTY should test every governing decision; Therefore, Amend. 14 (privileges and immunities) should be given precedence over Amend. 5. (due process) in interpreting The Constitution,
I add that their “natural law” compulsion based on the words “all men are created equal by their Creator” in the Declaration of Independence flies in the face of Amendment I “no law respecting an establishment of religion”. The USA must never be a christian (small c) country.
Every governing decision in USA should DEFEND LIBERTY.
Again: Every governing decision in USA should DEFEND LIBERTY.
THOMAS RICHARDS, North Attleboro, Mass.
I was very pleased to see that Ted Rall included the following “demand” in his 12/1/22 TPP article,”Here’s What a Progressive Platform Looks Like”: “Leadership to Ban the Most Frightening Weapons.” The Biden Administration has failed to provide that leadership by continuing the insane US policy to launch a first nuclear strike and spending billions more on intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads on Trident submarines.
Now more than ever, we need to prevent nuclear war and work at the community level to achieve this. As JFK said in 1961, “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”
One way to do this is to endorse Back from the Brink. Their platform and advocacy tools to start organizing at the community level can be found at: https://preventnuclearwar.org/endorse/
KATHLEEN WELCH, PhD, MPH, Phoenixville, Pa.
Robert Kuttner mentions issues that are bipartisan [in “It’s Time to Try Progressive Bipartisanship,” 1/1-15/23 TPP].
I can’t believe that Robert Kuttner did not mention the bipartisan issue of women’s rights. What a glaring omission when you realize that we kept the Senate because of the pro-choice issue.
GRACE GAMBINO, Jacksonville, Fla.
From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2023
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