Joe Firestone. posting on New Economic Perspectives, makes a highly persuasive argument against attempts to balance the budget under present conditions in his post An Open Letter to President Obama. He concludes with the following paragraphs:

Mr. President, this has been a long open letter, and I'll close it with some short statements. First, you will hurt, not help fiscal sustainability by pursuing austerity in Federal spending. Second, austerity in these times is not fiscally responsible. It is fiscally irresponsible. Third, real fiscal responsibility means spending what Government needs to spend to fulfill public purposes, and spending in such a way that spending can continue in the future, until public purposes are achieved. There are all kinds of public purposes going begging right now, and you're proposing that achieving those has to be subjected to austerity constraints because we are running out of money. Fourth, I can't imagine a more fiscally irresponsible course than the one you appear to be moving towards now. And that fiscally irresponsible course will, make no mistake about it, also hurt fiscal sustainability. While it won't destroy our solvency, it will destroy part of our productive capacity, and this will give us less room for government spending in the future to both heal our economic problems and avoid inflation while doing it.

So, please Mr. President, don't do austerity. Don't assume you know all about economics. Don't believe we have solvency problems when we have none. Don't believe we have to worry about inflation, when there is not the slightest chance of it anytime soon. Look at what you've done so far and evaluate it honestly. No excuses, please. It can't be right, because it has not worked. Don't be fiscally irresponsible and join the other global elites in following an ignorant and mistaken economic policy, likely to drive the world into a double-dip recession, or perhaps even a Great Depression 2.0. Instead, change course right now! Act like our President, an American President. Give us what we need, not what they need. Be loyal to us, not to them. And end this recession before it ruins any more American lives.

Admittedly, some of the letter may be a little difficult for the lay reader, but it is not abstruse or deliberately obfuscating. Anyone who retains some of what s/he learned in Econ 101 should not find it difficult. Chalk up its difficulties to the economic instruction all high schools graduates and most college graduates lack. But read the letter.

It is becoming all too clear that President Obama is in over his head in the field of economics. Receiving instruction from Bernake, Geithner and Summers will not put him any closer to economic reality, and especially its impact upon the average citizen. As I wrote over a year ago, real progress will come only when he fires this plutocratic threesome who genuinely believe that anything good for the financial sector (read “Goldman Sachs”) is good for America.

Tags: employment, elites, Deficits, Deflation