Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Don't you know there's a war on?

Well, we don't call it class war anymore, but that doesn't make the label less accurate. Ezra Klein has two interesting posts, and I think the connection is obvious, but you tell me. First, on the issue of the Fed raising interest rates to destroy worker's wages:
The Fed's abject terror of wage growth is a rather unhelpful hangover from the stagflation era. But, in the same way that economists kept trying to deal with the problems of yesteryear then, they're missing the relevant economic issues now. This society is in no danger of paying its workers too much, or seeing their salaries increase too rapidly. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Second, on GM's suicidal refusal to push for national healthcare, Ezra quotes union man Ron Bloom:
One thing I’ve learned is that corporate America has got much more class solidarity than we do... They really are afraid of getting thrown out of their country clubs, even though their objective ought to be maximizing value for their shareholders.”
The Fed doesn't strangle wages just because they're worried about inflation. They strangle wages because they also don't care about workers. (The Bank of Canada has learned from the Fed, too.)

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