Click here if you wish to access original source from The Real News and the transcript of this interview with Prof. Bill Black.
Black proposes two alternative explanations for Pres. Obama's interactions with Tea Party Republicans who advocate harsh cutbacks to social spending. Forget the first one about damaging the Republican party by holding out. That is pure nonsense in the guise of common sense which conforms to the conventional view of two-party adversaries propagated over mainstream media. Both parties represent, and are funded by, the same interests. Obviously, they sometimes have different strategies to serve those interests. But, it is clearly the second explanation that Black offers: "he [Obama] wants the excuse to give in."
He begins by pointing out that Obama has been preparing the groundwork by already offering concessions. Then Black explores the sources of proposed austerity policies in the Peterson Institute, and in turn, their earlier origins in the Washington Consensus of the late 1980s. However, for some reason he never mentions that Obama appointed billionaire Pete Peterson in 2010 to head the Deficit Commission to come up with policies to solve the problem of government deficits. This, of course, laid the groundwork for all the subsequent fake arguments about cutting social spending between his administration and the Tea Party Republicans, actions that were designed to lead into some "grand bargain" involving controversial cuts to social programs that he would be supposedly forced into. The "grand bargain" would provide him with the "excuse to give in".
Anyway, what is clear is that the Washington Consensus that originally forced devastating austerity and privatization policies onto many countries in Latin America has, under globalized capitalism, come home to roost on American soil.
