By Robert Field
For early risers (or for those who know how to record and watch later), the first hour of Morning Joe on MSNBC is an extraordinarilly informative discussion of the events of the past day and things yet to come.
Responding to the populist overwhelming victory (60 to 40) in Italy which led to the resignation of its prime minister, the question was poised “What has happened to bring about this populist wave of electoral rebellion recently across England, the United State and Italy?”
As good as Joe Scarborough and his illustrious guests are at punditry, they miss perhaps the salient reason for the rebellion. It was the languid and unequal recovery in the United States from the Great Recession of 2008.
Instead of adopting an ongonig fiscal policy of greater government spending to put the construction industry and others back to work which would have brought about a true recovery by 2010 or 2011, Congress turned almost exclusively to monetary policy that has created a hollow recovery based on low interest rates. It did drive up the stock market and further enriched the already super rich one percent of the population.
Being out of work or taking jobs at a fraction of past earnings has been a debilitating and depressing impact on a huge segments of the middle class and the poor, as well as on their families. They see the 1% being disproportionately enriched beyond proportion (some would say beyond decency) while they are likely worse off even in 2016 than they were in 2007.
And they get to vote!
Moreover the slow recovery in the United States rolled over Europe since it depends upon the U. S. economy to purchase its goods. The result has been massive unemployment among young people, from 30% to 40% on up in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
Hillary Clinton’s big mistake was not going after the Republican Congress during her campaign for impeding the recovery approach advocated by President Barack Obama. Harry Truman campaigned against a “Do nothing” Congress and pulled off the presidential upset of his century. Clinton should have been blaming today’s Congress for the slow and disproportionate recovery.
And she would have been right!
