Blame the Victims

This past week, the Times, in one day, provided two really stupid stories. I wrote a screed, which they've not published (no surprise there), so here's the one for DrKeynes. The background: on the top of page 2 of the Business section is BreakingViews, which that day decided to blame the Great Recession of American wages being too large. What follows is my view of BreakingViews.

These guys spewed the sort of lies I expect from Fox and WSJ. Reading history, Depressions and our current Great Recession are caused by labor receiving ever *smaller* parts of national income. Before Reagan, the top 1% took 8%, just before our current collapse, 23%. Same numbers preceded the Great Depression, the 1907 Panic, and all other events from our Civil War on. Your reporters really shouldn't lie so much. It is also worth mentioning that all those low wage foreigners aren't consumers of the goods they make, just because their wages are too poor. Making American workers just as poor will only destroy capital, along with labor. Henry Ford, no bleeding heart liberal, raised his workers wages because he understood that was how he could sell more cars. I expect better of The Times, well other than Judy, Judy, Judy.