Any takers?

[Aldo Matteucci <aldo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear friends,

I?m Swiss, retired in New Zealand, and a long lost friend of Michael.
That?s how I got recently admitted to your sancta sanctorum (NO, not
Santorum!!!) ? your email network, thanks to the marvels of electronic
globalisation, I guess.  For a little while the volume of messages
overwhelmed me (and my hotmail account too). It has calmed down a bit. So
I exploit the fact that the system seems to be becalmed to urge you to
join together in doing some constructive and progressive contingency work.

Bushism is rampant, and seems unstoppable. Two things could do it in ?
quickly.

For one the issue of the missing WMD, but that?s nothing we can do
anything about. We can gloat, we can rejoice (Watergate revisited), but
we cannot influence the process. Though the Commander in Chief grossly
misled Congress, he seems unassailable at the moment, unless the
situation in Iraq deteriorates, and the quagmire becomes more obvious. As
with Johnson, he may fall victim not to the lies he used, but to the fact
that he got the US into a mess. Winners never lie.

The other is the economy. Depression, deflation, the buzz words are all
there ? buzzards perched high on the skeleton of the US economy and
watching the lonely ranger on his mangy military nag careening madly
through the desert landscape and shooting at the saguaros of social
services while the wild asses scamper in a cloud of dust.

In a year?s time, a serious Democratic candidate may be facing down the
lonely ranger. We don?t know who the candidate will be. But he?ll need
good economic programs in a hurry. Someone has to prepare the ammunition,
and keep it dry. FDR had such a team of academic advisors. We have no FDR
(yet ? but don?t worry, the opportunity makes the man) but we need the
programs now. They cannot be improvised.

So her is the challenge to all of you professional economists. What about
drawing up an effective economic program for the next electoral showdown?
It could be articulated along the following lines:
·       Macro-economic policy
·       Social benefits (social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.)
·       Fiscal policy
·       International trade policy
·       Labour policies
·       Deregulation.

Now such a program should be progressive, and not utopian. For one you
need the votes, not the glory of perfection. It has to be coherent, and
doable. And it must be something that even a donkey can defend. Hence it
is not simply the current program multiplied by ?1.

No Marxist jargon, please, take a shower.

Maybe it?s the fact that I leading a charmed life in Oceania that makes
me feel guilty about doing nothing for (a) change. My pet gripe is Social
Security and other social programs. I could contribute marginally in that
department. But unlike Michael, who has remained faithful to academia,
I?ve no academic claim to fame. And while professors may be absent-
minded, I?m scatterbrained.

I?ve thrown down the gauntlet. Who picks it up? The alternative ? rest
assured ? it to leave the joust to the modern Duke/Count/Knights (of
Microsoft etc.), around whom we knaves shall huddle, polishing his
shining armour. Wizard Murdoch will preside, and languorous King George
the Speechless will trip over his own words as he urges the best to win.
Have fun
Aldo


Aldo Matteucci
61, Ludlam Cr.
LOWER HUTT 6009
NEW Zealand
aldo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (preferred)
aldo_matteucci@xxxxxxxxxxx
aldo.matteucci@xxxxxxxxxxx