A Message To Progressives: By All Means,

This Is A Serious Analysis Of A Ridiculous Subject, Which Is Of Course The Opposite Of What Is Usual In Economics.

The Growth Of The Internet Will Slow Drastically, As The Flaw In 'metcalfe's Law'–which States That The Number Of Potential Connections In A Network Is Proportional To The Square Of The Number Of Participants–becomes Apparent: Most People Have Nothing To Say To Each Other! By 2005 Or So, It Will Become Clear That The Internet's Impact On The Economy Has Been No Greater Than The Fax Machine's.

[i]f You Look At United States History Since World War Ii, You Find That Of The 10 Presidents Who Preceded Barack Obama, Seven Left Office With A Debt Ratio Lower Than When They Came In. Who Were The Three Exceptions? Ronald Reagan And The Two George Bushes.

Many People ... Prefer To Describe Themselves As Progressives Rather Than Liberals. To Some Extent That's A Response To The Decades-long Propaganda Campaign Conducted By Movement Conservatives, Which Has Been Quite Successful In Making Americans Disdain The Word Liberal But Much Less Successful In Reducing Support For Liberal Policies.

On The Political As On The Economic Front It's Important Not To Fall Into The "not As Bad As" Trap. High Unemployment Isn't O.k. Just Because It Hasn't Hit 1933 Levels; Ominous Political Trends Shouldn’t Be Dismissed Just Because There’s No Hitler In Sight.