Mike Lebowitz, a pen-l alumnus, sends me this: >US Nobel Laureate Slams Bush Government As "Worst" in American History > >Berlin, July 30 (RHC) - American Nobel Prize laureate for Economics George >Akerlof lashed out at the government of US President George Bush, calling it >the "worst ever" in 200 years of American history, the online site of >Berlin's weekly Der Spiegel magazine reported Tuesday. The respected 2001 >Nobel Prize laureate who teaches economics at the University of California >in Berkeley said the Bush administration "has engaged in extraordinarily >irresponsible policies not only in foreign policy and economics but also in >social and environmental policy." The 61-year-old scholar said now is the >time for the American people to engage in civil disobedience and protest as >much as possible. > >According to Akerlof, the officially projected 455 billion dollar fiscal >deficit this year - the largest ever - is in the long term unmanageable and >will put a severe strain on services like Medicare, Medicaid and Social >Security. With respect to tax cuts for the wealthy, he said "they don't need >it," adding that the rich have done extremely well in the US in the past >twenty years, whereas poorer citizens have done quite badly. Responding to a >question about Bush's promise while campaigning for an even larger tax cut >earlier this year that it would create 1.4 million jobs, Akerlof said the >government is not really telling the truth to the American people who, for >some reason, still do not yet recognize the dire budgetary consequences. > >If they don't, he added, and if Bush isn't voted out of office next year, >future generations and even people in ten years are going to face massive >public deficits and huge government debt that will leave them with the >choice of being like a very poor country with problems of threatening >bankruptcy or drastically cutting health and pension services upon which the >majority of the population depends.
Jim Devine
