Dear William,

Because markets cannot and do not think ahead, the United States needs a capacity to plan.  To build such a capacity, we must, first of all, overcome our taboo against planning.  Planning is inherently imperfect, but in the absence of planning, disaster is certain. James K. Galbraith

  T he Ghost of Full Employment, by Jefferson Cowie,  In the 1970s, Americans also faced a global recession and double-digit unemployment -- but back then politicians had the courage to think big. After nearly two years of bad economic news, which topped off three decades of economic insecurity, perhaps it's understandable that we've grown indifferent to labor-market pains. We shrug at long-term double-digit unemployment.  We've come to believe that unconscionable levels of inequality are something natural to the social order. The government's direct response to the jobs and poverty crisis has been simple indifference. Wedded to the idea that propping up the market will naturally lead to job growth, officials have responded with "solutions" drawn only from the narrow menu of economic fundamentalism -- tax cuts and stimulus. Now that gross domestic product is positive, the unemployment problem is mostly considered "structural" -- a skills mism...

Few literary moments stand out more for me then when "Blowback: The Cost and Consequences of American Imperialism" appeared on the library shelf in 2000. I had discovered an incredibly contrarian and prescient voice with the credibility of an economist/ Navy Lt/CIA consultant and was hooked. Johnson called into question US motives overseas and the potential repercussions and costs of our attempt at hegemony. Like the early oracles of the 2008 financial crisis, Johnson attempted to highlight the threats posed by current policy and correct the cycle. Johnson viewed the American publics ignorance regarding these policies as equally destructive: “When the retaliation comes, as it did so spectacularly on Sept. 11, 2001, the American public is unable to put the events in context. So they tend to support acts intended to lash out against the perpetrators, thereby most commonly preparing the ground for yet another cycle of blowback.” Continuing the theme in “The Sorrows of E...