Defund the IMF!

Dean Baker.Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
Posted: June 29, 2010 12:35 PM
Why Should We Trust the IMF?
Is advice from the IMF better than advice from a drunk in the street? That is the question that people around the world should be asking as the International Monetary Fund dishes out its prescription for austerity. The IMF program calls for cutbacks in government support for healthcare, pensions, and a wide range of other public services. It also calls for weakening labor market regulations that provide workers with job security.

These recommendations are being given in a context where the world economy is suffering from a massive shortfall of demand. In other words, tens of millions of people are unemployed right now because there is not enough spending to keep them employed. The IMF's program is almost certain to reduce spending further leading to even larger shortfalls in demand and more unemployment.

But, the IMF says that we should trust them. The question we should all be asking is: "why?"

Where was the IMF when the housing bubble in the US and elsewhere was inflating to ever more dangerous levels? Was it frantically yelling at governments to rein in the bubbles before they burst with disastrous consequences? After all, what could possibly have been more important than warning of the dangers of these bubbles?

It was easy to both recognize the housing bubbles and that their collapse would have devastating consequences for the economy. Economies don't adjust easily to a loss of wealth that in some cases exceeded 50 percent of GDP.

Real economists know this, but apparently the folks at the IMF did not, or if they did, they didn't think it was worth saying anything. One will look in vain through IMF publications during the build-up of the housing bubble for serious warnings of the potential dangers. While the IMF can scream about the need for austerity today, it couldn't be bothered to say much about the bubbles that got us here.

The IMF's track record gives us reason not only to question the institution's competence but also its motivations. This question comes up most clearly in the case of Argentina. At the end of 2001 Argentina defaulted on its debt, enraging the IMF. Prior to the default, Argentina had been an IMF poster child eagerly embracing the IMF's program.

The IMF's growth forecasts clearly reflected its change of attitude toward Argentina. Prior to the default the IMF was consistently overly optimistic about Argentina's growth prospects, projecting much higher growth than Argentina actually experienced. After the default, the IMF was hugely over-pessimistic, projecting much lower growth rates than it subsequently experienced. It is difficult to explain this pattern of errors except by a political motivation.

It is possible to see a similar pattern in the IMF's latest set of policy recommendations to deal with the economic crisis. The impact of most of its proposals will be to reduce the benefits received by ordinary workers. The proposed changes in labor market regulations will likely also weaken workers' bargaining power, leading to cuts in wages. Furthermore, the reduction in demand caused by the turn to austerity will leave millions more out of work, both depriving these workers of income and further weakening the bargaining power of those who still have jobs.

There are alternatives. Central banks like the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve Board could just buy and hold large amounts of government debt. These central banks can both ensure that there are no questions of solvency by providing a ready market for government debt and that there is no build-up of interest burdens. The interest paid on the debt held by the banks is refunded to governments.

Large-scale central bank purchases of government debt will not create inflation in a context of massive unemployment and excess capacity. This is not a point we have to debate. Japan's central bank has bought an amount of government debt roughly equal to its GDP, yet it remains far more concerned about deflation than inflation. While we could hope to do better on the stimulus front than Japan, inflation is simply not a problem it faces now or even on the distant horizon.

It is especially painful to see these calls from austerity coming from the IMF. This organization is distinguished not only by its dismal track record in pushing economic policies that don't work; it also is known for the exorbitant benefits that it gives its economists. Under the IMF's pension program, many staffers can retire in their early 50s with six-figure pensions. Imagine the folks who completely missed the housing bubble or who got it totally wrong on Argentina lounging around the tropics at age 51 on their $100,000 a year IMF pension. When it comes to economic advice, I think I'd rather listen to that honest street drunk."
The IMF is just another boondoggle. Let's defund it. They don't need to use our hard-earned tax dollars to bail out Greece and the Euro. Elect Jim Holbert. He's against using taxpayer money for foolishness.

Boehner says it's time senior citizens did their part for the war effort

"Boehner says it's time senior citizens did their part for the war effort
by Barbara Morrill
Tue Jun 29, 2010 at 08:52:04 AM PDT
The GOP is finally asking for Americans to step up to the plate and do their part to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least some Americans:

Ensuring there’s enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country’s entitlement system, [House Minority Leader John] Boehner said. He said he’d favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them.

Not only could our seniors prove their patriotism by working for several more years, it would mean our brothers in banking won't have to continue to pay the price for their meltdown.

It's a win, win solution ... assuming you're a Republican or a banker."
Put a stop to that nonsense. Dump Hal Rogers. Elect Jim Holbert to the U.S. House.

Republicans Block Homeless Veterans Relief Bill!

Let's Ditch Mitch. It's too late to ditch Mitch, but we can Ditch Hal Rogers this year. Vote for Jim Holbert for U.S. House KY-05!

Dennis Kucinich Speaks Out Against the War!

Stop War Funding This Weekend!

The Afghan War is becoming less and less popular with only 37% of Americans supporting the war. More are seeing the war as a quagmire that is ineffective in stabilizing Afghanistan, fails to protect U.S. security and drains massive resources that the U.S. does not have. The House leadership hopes to rush $33 billion in new war funding through by this weekend.
In the midst of the firing of General Stanley McChrystal, reports of a war going badly, and an economy in collapse, the House of Representatives is considering giving $33 billion more for war. The leadership of the Democrats hopes to approve the funding by the July 4th recess. There are growing concerns among many in Congress about deficit spending and about the direction of the war, so while approval of this funding is likely, it is not a sure thing. If the war funding is combined with an unemployment and jobs bill, as is one possibility, the democrats will need near unanimous support to push the war funding through.
Please take action today to write and call your representative. Send an email to your Representative in the House. The Capitol Hill switchboard is (202) 224-3121. Please call and email today.
The Constitution gives Congress the responsibility to determine whether to go to war and whether war should be funded. This Constitutional responsibility gives Congress the power to end the war. Urge your Representative to stop war funding. The quagmire of Afghanistan can be ended by the House of Representatives taking their responsibility seriously, looking at the facts, and recognizing that U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is doing more harm than good. Tell Congress to represent the people - a majority of whom oppose the Afghanistan War.
The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, David Obey, has the power to single-handedly block funding to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Currently he is doing so by refusing to advance the funding unless schools and jobs are funded. Call him every day to thank him and ask him to reject war escalation funding even if jobs and teachers are funded. Rep. Obey's number is (202) 225-3365.
No doubt it is an uphill battle to stop war funding. The process of building opposition is critical to our success. Americans need to consistently let their representatives know that funding war, especially at a time when so many domestic necessities are unfunded, is opposed by the voters. Opposition to the Afghanistan War is growing and will continue to grow. Elected officials consistently hear from those in the military industrial complex who support war; they need to hear from us as well.
Consistent, ongoing, and informed citizen action is an essential ingredient to challenging the continuation of the Afghanistan War. Please use this opportunity to write and call your Representative now.
Thanks for your continued support.

Jim Holbert opposes war funding or U.S. Troops in Afghanistan. Elect Jim Holbert to the U.S. House KY-05!

Meet Jim Holbert!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010
A Democratic Congressional Candidate Speaks Out On Afghanistan-- Meet Jim Holbert


Last night one of the few Democratic incumbents to come out squarely against the Bush-Obama war against Afghanistan, North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, triumphed decisively over the pro-war Inside the Beltway establishment and their conservative shill. Two years ago Kentucky populist Jim Holbert ran for Congress, as an independent, against slick GOP corporatist Hal Rogers. Jim was against the war then and, running as a Democrat this year, he's against the war now. His opponent, known locally as the "King of Pork," is loaded with corporate campaign cash and Jim is running a grassroots campaign but with Democratic enthusiasm running high-- in part because of the face-off between Jack Conway and a bewigged Cookie Monster in the Senate race-- Jim is ready to surprise the usual crew of Beltway pundits and prognosticators who have already declared Rogers reelected.

When he ran against Rogers last time he told me it was "out of a sense of outrage that games were being played while the country was melting down." Following the 2008 election, where he garnered 16% of the vote while Rogers outspent him 300-to-1, Jim re-registered as a Democrat, continued building a base of popular support, and has emerged as the Democratic nominee to take on Rogers this November, winning 41% of the vote in the Kentucky three-way primary held on May 18th.

Jim's platform has remained consistent, and he pulls no punches. "We need an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a commitment to returning jobs to America and moving toward a full-employment economy, and a national energy plan that makes sense for America's future," he says.

Jim's stand on the issues is backed by twenty years of military service as an officer in the Army and Coast Guard, and experience as a professional pilot working throughout America and overseas. You can learn about Jim's campaign at holbertforcongress.com and you can donate to his campaign through ActBlue. Between McChrystal's insubordination yesterday and Marshall's spectacular win as an anti-war candidate, I got in touch with Jim, a career military officer, and asked him to pen a guest post on Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, America’s longest war, is scheduled by the Obama administration to begin winding down as troop pullouts start a year from now. But the only course that will truly serve America’s interest now and in the long term is an immediate end to the conflict.

As a young person coming of age during the Vietnam period, I followed that war’s military and political events closely. What was obvious to the majority of Americans then should be just as obvious now, as the mistakes of Vietnam are being replayed in southwest Asia: There is no “victory,” in a military sense, to the type of counterinsurgency struggle into which we’ve let ourselves become repeatedly mired.

The counterinsurgency strategy to which General McChrystal is wedded demands the utmost fortitude from the military component of what must be a joint effort between administrators, politicians, and warfighters. It will demand heavy sacrifices in blood and suffering from the troops who do the fighting, and if successful, it is a process which will be measure in decades. But General McChrystal and his adherents both in uniform and out, ignore one crucial lesson which was made plain by Vietnam and still applies: Reform and pacification and transformation of a nation and a society can never occur unless that nation’s commitment to these things exists, and is the primary goal of the indigenous people. It can never be sold or forced upon them by any military or political force from outside.

As in Vietnam four decades ago, the reality in Afghanistan today is a corrupt government, payoffs and bribery on a massive scale, and an entrenched narcotics trade that funds the resistance. The brutal geopolitical and historical reality is that Afghanistan has never rested under what the Afghan people perceive as foreign occupation, and that an Afghan society anchored in custom and tradition more than a thousand years old is not going to be re-made in the image of a Western democracy.

Let’s once again be clear: Opposition to continued American military involvement in Afghanistan is not failure to support our troops. In Afghanistan, as in all American wars, our fighting men and women have done all that they have been asked to do, and more. The key tasks serving the interests of freedom and the American nation were all accomplished in the early days of the Afghanistan involvement, namely, deposing a brutal and tyrannical regime, providing a chance for the Afghan people to make a new start in their own government, and the major disruption of Al Qaida networks. But the the war simmered on and the inevitable internal Afghan opposition to outside occupation coalesced and asserted itself, as it has throughout history.

Now the commitment to counterinsurgency strategy is a real possibility as Obama harkens to the McChrystal school, seemingly just as Lyndon Johnson allowed himself to be seduced by the arrogance and ignorance of Westmoreland and other Generals and Admirals of the Vietnam era, and with a similarly predictable result.

Recent comments by McChrystal and his staff have made clear their disdain for the Obama administration’s direction of the war and raised serious questions as to their commitment to civilian control of the military. As I write this, it is unclear whether General McChrystal has resigned in the wake of these comments being made public, but he should tender his resignation and if he does not, President Obama should relieve him of his command in Afghanistan.

For the sake of our country and its future, the American people must unite in demanding an immediate end to the wars in Afghanistan, and also in Iraq. These prolonged, politically mismanaged, and indecisive struggles have cost the lives of thousands of our troops, are grinding down our military and driving our country further into bankruptcy, and serving to recruit more enemies of the United States. We will only defend America effectively in this global long-term struggle through more intelligent and reasonable diplomatic, trade, economic, and energy policies, not by endless warfare.

-Jim Holbert, email: contact@holbertforcongress.com

This time elect Democrat Jim Holbert to the U.S. House KY-05!

Dead Last! Dead Last! Dead Last!

"• Kentucky’s Fifth Congressional District, encompassing the southeastern
part of the state, is at the bottom of the rankings with an average life
expectancy of 7 .6 years. Virginia’s Eighth District, covering urban
northern Virginia, is at the top of the table with a life expectancy of 8 .9—a
difference of more than a decade. Residents of Kentucky’s Fifth District
have an average life expectancy equal to that of the average American
three decades ago."
"American Human Development Report 2008–2009"
The KY Fifth District is Dead Last in longevity in the U.S.A. Why? Why? It's time for change! Elect Jim Holbert to the U.S. House KY-05. Let's send Hal Rogers packing and elect more Democrats!

Fort Campbell, Kentucky soldier killed in Afghanistan.

Lake George soldier killed in Afghanistan
Benjamin Osborn, 27, was on second tour; newlywed
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
First published in print: Thursday, June 17, 2010
LAKE GEORGE -- Four years after graduating from Lake George Junior Senior High School, Benjamin Osborn left the North Country for the service in search of action and more meaning to his young life.
His older sister, Bethany Osborn, said the Queensbury native found purpose in the Army and was on his second tour of duty in the Middle East when he was killed Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan.
He'd just been married at Six Flags Great Escape Lodge in February.
"He realized he wasn't a student, but he preferred action and wanted to make a difference, and going into the military was his way of doing that," said Bethany Osborn, 33. "He was a proud soldier and believed in what he was doing."
She said her brother was cut down by an insurgent's bullet after he volunteered to be the gunner during a combat mission with about 20 fellow soldiers.
The youngest boy and one of five children, Benjamin Osborn was 27 years old. The military is investigating the incident, Bethany Osborn said.
The Department of Defense could not be reached Wednesday night to confirm the serviceman's death. But Bethany Osborn said her parents received a call in the middle of the night Wednesday from her brother's wife, Nicole LaPier-Osborn, in Tennessee with the sad news.
News of Ben Osborn's death soon spread throughout this close-knit community and flags at the elementary and high school were lowered to half-staff in memory of the fallen soldier.
"A lot of the staff were upset and heartbroken not only because we knew him but he was a soldier who served our country," said Francis Cocozza, Lake George High School principal. "We remember Ben fondly and a lot of staff have great memories of him."
He said the two-school district of about 1,000 students would first confer with the Osborn family before planning any type of memorial service in Ben's honor. In high school, Benjamin Osborn played football, his sister added.
After graduation, Osborn attended Adirondack Community College and worked during two summers beginning in 2005 as a bartender at the Lobster Pot restaurant, according his sister and employees at the eatery.
Scott Wood, the owner of the seafood establishment, recalled his fun-loving nature. "Each day he brought smiles and fun to work," according to a statement released by Wood. "His sacrifice will not be in vain."
Bethany Osborn said her kid brother was a practical joker who kept a smile on his face and liked to see people happy.
"He was always smiling, very well-liked, and popular," she said.
Benjamin Osborn was a member of the Army's 101st Airborne based out of Fort Campbell, Ky."
Jim Holbert and Kenneth Stepp salute Benjamin Osborn! Support our troops! Bring them home now!

Kenneth Stepp salutes Corporal Jacob C. Leicht!

Former Clay County, Kentucky, U.S. Marine Corporal Jacob C. Leicht is 1,000th American serviceman killed in Afghanistan war
May 30,2010 1:49
Kerrville Marine Jake Leicht's portrait held by brother Jonathan. Leicht was killed May 27, 2010.
Kerrville, Texas Marine Corporal Jacob C. Leicht is the 1,000th American serviceman killed in Afghanistan.
Leicht, 24, and known as “Jake,” died Thursday, May 27, 2010 by stepping on a land mine in Helmand province.
This was the Marine’s second experience with a bomb while fighting in the Middle East.
Less than a month into his 2007 tour of duty in Iraq, Leicht drove a Humvee over a bomb, which killed five others. He was dragged out of the blasted vehicle with serous face and leg injuries.
While healing at Brooke Army Medical Center for two years, Leicht pleaded for a chance to go back field combat.
“All he ever wanted to do was go into the military,” said Kerrville Independent School District spokeswoman Lisa Winters. “He was fully capable of finishing his degree at Tivy (High School), but he chose to go to Hill Country High School to get his G.E.D. so he could enlist as soon as he could.”
“He probably died doing what he wanted to do,” commented Winters.
Leicht's body should arrive in the United States by Memorial Day indicated news reports." Kenneth Stepp salutes former Clay County resident Corporal Jacob C. Leicht.