Sucking us under.

Editor,

Are the Republicans in this country listening to the futility of cutting, cutting, and cutting spending -- aka austerity?

And do they still not understand the necessity to raise revenue -- via taxing the unproductive capital hoarded by corporations and the rich -- to spend on infrastructure repair and other investments in our nation's future, putting wages in unemployed workers' pockets, to jump start our economy?

Republicans must understand that "tax, borrow, and spend" are one half of the stimulus equation. It is imperative not to cut taxes, as Republicans inevitably do, once the economy is growing again because continuing to collect that tax revenue is essential to pay back the money borrowed to hire the unemployed.

Also: Neoclassical monetary policy, which asserts that putting capital in the hands of banks will stimulate the banks to lend, sounds good in the a priori armchair, but how banks really work is they lend first then borrow capital to bolster their reserves. This is why Federal reserve monetary policy is failing. Bolstering bank reserves when banks are not lending is putting the theoretical cart before the empirical horse. Only fiscal stimulus can rescue us from the economic quicksand that is sucking us under.

Re: "Europe Nears Agreement on Bailout Fund That May Be Inadequate" (9/28/2011)