I think the 1980-1981 recession very well illustrates the efficiency of Keynesian economics, even when it was called differently at the time. What pulled America out of this recession was a combination of tax cuts and increased spending under Reagan. It was sold under the banner of limited government, but in fact was a disguised Keynesian policy.
hamilcarr
JoinedPosts by hamilcarr
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28
We Will Recover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by Warlock inhttp://www.rense.com/general85/no.htm.
warlock .
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Neither atheists nor theists but still moral
by hamilcarr inhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/28beliefs.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all.
scandanavian nonbelievers, which is not to say atheists
by peter steinfels .
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hamilcarr
I think many Europeans can identify themselves with this trend. It's what makes us unique.
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Neither atheists nor theists but still moral
by hamilcarr inhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/28beliefs.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all.
scandanavian nonbelievers, which is not to say atheists
by peter steinfels .
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hamilcarr
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/28beliefs.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all
Scandanavian Nonbelievers, Which Is Not to Say Atheists
Published: February 27, 2009
Phil Zuckerman spent 14 months in Scandinavia, talking to hundreds of Danes and Swedes about religion. It wasn’t easy.
Anyone who has paid attention knows that Denmark and Sweden are among the least religious nations in the world. Polls asking about belief in God, the importance of religion in people’s lives, belief in life after death or church attendance consistently bear this out.
It is also well known that in various rankings of nations by life expectancy, child welfare, literacy, schooling, economic equality, standard of living and competitiveness, Denmark and Sweden stand in the first tier.
Well documented though they may be, these two sets of facts run up against the assumption of many Americans that a society where religion is minimal would be, in Mr. Zuckerman’s words, “rampant with immorality, full of evil and teeming with depravity.”
Which is why he insists at some length that what he and his wife and children experienced was quite the opposite: “a society — a markedly irreligious society — that was, above all, moral, stable, humane and deeply good.”
Mr. Zuckerman, a sociologist who teaches at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., has reported his findings on religion in Denmark and Sweden in “Society Without God” (New York University Press, 2008). Much that he found will surprise many people, as it did him.
The many nonbelievers he interviewed, both informally and in structured, taped and transcribed sessions, were anything but antireligious, for example. They typically balked at the label “atheist.” An overwhelming majority had in fact been baptized, and many had been confirmed or married in church.
Though they denied most of the traditional teachings of Christianity, they called themselves Christians, and most were content to remain in the Danish National Church or the Church of Sweden, the traditional national branches of Lutheranism.
At the same time, they were “often disinclined or hesitant to talk with me about religion,” Mr. Zuckerman reported, “and even once they agreed to do so, they usually had very little to say on the matter.”
Were they reticent because they considered religion, as Scandinavians generally do, a private, personal matter? Is there, perhaps, as one Lutheran bishop in Denmark has argued, a deep religiosity to be discovered if only one scratches this taciturn surface?
“I spent a year scratching,” Mr. Zuckerman writes. “I scratched and I scratched and I scratched.”
And he concluded that “religion wasn’t really so much a private, personal issue, but rather, a nonissue .” His interviewees just didn’t care about it.
Beyond reticence, Mr. Zuckerman found what he terms “benign indifference” and even “utter obliviousness.” The key word in his description of their benign indifference is “nice.” Religion, in their view, is “nice.” Jesus “was a nice man who taught some nice things.” The Bible “is full of nice stories and good morals, isn’t it?”
Beyond niceness came utter obliviousness.
Thoughtful, well-educated Danes and Swedes reacted to Mr. Zuckerman’s basic questions about God, Jesus, death and so on as completely novel. “I really have never thought about that,” one of his interviewees answered, adding, “It’s been fun to get these kinds of questions that I never, never think about.”
This indifference or obliviousness to religious matters was sometimes subtly enforced. “In Denmark,” a pastor told Mr. Zuckerman, “the word ‘God’ is one of the most embarrassing words you can say. You would rather go naked through the city than talk about God.”
One man recounted the shock he felt when a colleague, after a few drinks, confessed to believing in God. “I hope you don’t feel I’m a bad person,” the colleague pleaded.
Social conformity or not, Mr. Zuckerman was deeply impressed with the matter-of-fact way in which many of his interviewees spoke of death, without fear or anxiety, and their notable lack of existential searching for any ultimate meaning of life.
A long list of thinkers, both believers and nonbelievers, have posited something like an innate religious instinct. Confronted by the mystery of death or the puzzle of life’s ultimate meaning, humans are said to be hard-wired to turn to religion or something like it. Based on his experience in Scandinavia, Mr. Zuckerman disagrees.
“It is possible for a society to exist in which most people don’t really fear death all that much,” he concluded, “and simultaneously don’t give a great deal of thought to the meaning of life.”
Are these Scandinavians out to prove that Socrates was wrong and the unexamined life is definitely worth living? Mr. Zuckerman emphasizes that his interviewees were in no way despairing nihilists but “for the most part, a happy, satisfied lot” who “generally live productive, creative, contented lives.”
André Comte-Sponville, the French philosopher whose “Little Book of Atheist Spirituality” (Viking, 2007) was discussed here two weeks ago, maintains that individuals can live well without religion but that society, or even humanity as a whole, needs a set of bonds that might be considered “sacred,” at least in the sense of something “that would justify, if necessary, the sacrifice of our lives.”
A fidelity to inherited values, a “nonreligiousness” that is “more than just an empty shell or an elegant form of amnesia,” is Mr. Comte-Sponvilles’s atheist answer to his own question, “What remains of the Christian West when it ceases to be Christian?”
He might find reassurance in Scandinavia and in Mr. Zuckerman’s description of the “cultural religion” that he discovered there. The interviewees affirmed a Christianity that seems to have everything to do with “holidays, songs, stories and food” but little to do with God or Creed, everything to do with rituals marking important passages in life but little to do with the religious meaning of those rituals.
Others may be puzzled or even repelled by the apparent dissonance, but Mr. Zuckerman, comparing it to the experience of many Jews in the United States and Israel, strives to make sense of it, and he suggests that it deserves much more study all around the world.
This cultural religion may partly explain aspects of Denmark and Sweden that he admires.
At one point, he queries Jens, a 68-year-old nonbeliever, about the sources of Denmark’s very ethical culture. Jens replies: “We are Lutherans in our souls — I’m an atheist, but still have the Lutheran perceptions of many: to help your neighbor. Yeah. It’s an old, good, moral thought.”
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28
We Will Recover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by Warlock inhttp://www.rense.com/general85/no.htm.
warlock .
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hamilcarr
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered or not driven to its knees.
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28
We Will Recover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by Warlock inhttp://www.rense.com/general85/no.htm.
warlock .
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hamilcarr
Keynes was a genius, but he was writing for difference circumstances.
But human psychology didn't change over the last decades. At times when people see encouraging prospects for the future, they're better able to work together constructively, supporting democratic principles. When prospects for growth falter,society could easily slip into totalitarianism. That's what happened in post-WWI Europe with an increase of antisemitism, racism, fascism, etc. The United States in the 1930s were a notable exception. The reason for this was their great spirit of cooperation, institutional change and progress embodied in the New Deal and other modern liberal ideals. I think that that era has constributed more to the global status of the US than any other period.
If one allowed the current system to crash without bright prospects of a solid recovery, all these law-abiding citizens could easily lose their confidence in democracy (happening now already). Hence, government lethargy would be a big mistake imho.
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Powerless
by cameo-d injeremiah 10:23.
23 lord, i know that a man doesn't control his own life.
he doesn't direct his own steps.. .
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hamilcarr
I think it could mean we can't control (or even perceive) all the externalities that control our actions or decisions and restrain our free will.
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No Gentials in New System? Does the WT say that?
by asilentone inread dune's post 788/789.
if you can find wt article about the possibility of no gentials in "paradise", please post here.
thanks!.
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hamilcarr
Chemical castration is rather painless. Just like the WT, it reduces sexual activity.
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May 15th Watchtower - New Light?
by slimboyfat inthe new watchtower asks the question: "when was satan cast out of heaven?
- rev 12:1-9".
and the answer it gives is: "so, then, the bible does not reveal the exact time when satan and his demons were expelled from heaven.
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hamilcarr
...another interesting thing in the magazine I thought was the study article aimed at young people, not so much for what it says as what it does not say. It talks about pressures on young people but does not mention higher education at all. Also there is a section on preparing for a successful marriage, but no mention of the possibility of 'making room for singleness' as they did in the past. Is this a sign they are becoming a bit less strict?
Now, THAT's interesting.
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28
We Will Recover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by Warlock inhttp://www.rense.com/general85/no.htm.
warlock .
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hamilcarr
hamilcarr, the cure for overindebtedness is not more debt.
I think you're confusing cause and consequence. Public debt is not the cause of this recession. Government spending must fuel the economy by creating sustainable employment and restoring confidence and purchasing power. In the long run, smart deficit spending combined with risk management is the cure for any recession. The government should learn to be frugal when the private sector is thriving.
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Banks intend to tackle recession by hard work and responsibility
by hamilcarr inlawmakers shouldn't interfere with the private sector for the good of we, the people.. chicago responding to lawmakers who chastised the company for its lavish sponsorship of parties and concerts at a professional golf tournament, northern trust corp. said friday it will pay back a $1.6 billion federal bailout loan as quickly as possible.. northern trust acted within government guidelines by sponsoring the pga tour's northern trust open at riviera country club in suburban los angeles, president and ceo frederick h. waddell said in a letter to members of the u.s. house financial services committee.. "we deeply regret that some of the events associated with the northern trust open have distracted from the positive nature of an event that has raised more than $50 million for charity since its inception," waddell wrote, adding, "we will redouble our efforts to ensure that these activities are appropriate given the current environment.".
northern trust has set a goal of repaying government funds "as quickly as prudently possible," waddell said.. the chicago-based custody bank came under criticism last week after news that it lodged hundreds of clients and employees at upscale hotels and hosted them at concerts and dinners associated with the weeklong tournament.
a report by entertainment web site tmz said northern trust flew in hundreds of employees and clients for the event.. many banks that received money as part of the government's $700 billion government package passed last fall have been criticized by politicians in washington in recent weeks about their spending habits _ from hosting conferences to buying corporate jets _ after obtaining the funds.. the events were part of the bank's global marketing activities and were focused on showing appreciation for clients and attracting new business, douglas holt, a spokesman for northern trust, said earlier this week.. no government funds were used to fund the golf events, holt said.. earlier this week, eighteen democrats on the financial services panel, led by chairman barney frank, d-mass., told waddell in a scathing letter, "we insist that you immediately return to the federal government the equivalent of what northern trust frittered away on these lavish events.".
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hamilcarr
Lawmakers shouldn't interfere with the private sector for the good of we, the people.
CHICAGO — Responding to lawmakers who chastised the company for its lavish sponsorship of parties and concerts at a professional golf tournament, Northern Trust Corp. said Friday it will pay back a $1.6 billion federal bailout loan as quickly as possible.
Northern Trust acted within government guidelines by sponsoring the PGA Tour's Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club in suburban Los Angeles, President and CEO Frederick H. Waddell said in a letter to members of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee.
"We deeply regret that some of the events associated with the Northern Trust Open have distracted from the positive nature of an event that has raised more than $50 million for charity since its inception," Waddell wrote, adding, "we will redouble our efforts to ensure that these activities are appropriate given the current environment."
Northern Trust has set a goal of repaying government funds "as quickly as prudently possible," Waddell said.
The Chicago-based custody bank came under criticism last week after news that it lodged hundreds of clients and employees at upscale hotels and hosted them at concerts and dinners associated with the weeklong tournament. A report by entertainment Web site TMZ said Northern Trust flew in hundreds of employees and clients for the event.
Many banks that received money as part of the government's $700 billion government package passed last fall have been criticized by politicians in Washington in recent weeks about their spending habits _ from hosting conferences to buying corporate jets _ after obtaining the funds.
The events were part of the bank's global marketing activities and were focused on showing appreciation for clients and attracting new business, Douglas Holt, a spokesman for Northern Trust, said earlier this week.
No government funds were used to fund the golf events, Holt said.
Earlier this week, eighteen Democrats on the financial services panel, led by Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told Waddell in a scathing letter, "We insist that you immediately return to the federal government the equivalent of what Northern Trust frittered away on these lavish events."
"At a time when millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, businesses and consumers are in dire need of credit, and the government is trying to keep financial institutions _ including yours _ alive with billions in taxpayer funds, this behavior demonstrates extraordinary levels of irresponsibility and arrogance," they wrote.
Throughout the ongoing credit crisis and recession, Northern Trust has remained profitable, unlike some large commercial banks that have received larger sums from the government. Northern Trust earned $794.8 million, or $3.47 per share, in 2008.
Despite remaining profitable, Northern Trust announced in December it would cut 4 percent of its staff, or about 450 jobs.