Who says economics blogs are only for academics? I get my daily dose of outrage from some of the following bloggers.

From Urban Survival today: "[W]e regular taxpayers are treated to more Fed BOHICA (Bend over, here it comes again)" and "Why can't Wal-Mart start publishing a monthly real inflation report so we can at least get a second opinion?"

From Dean Baker's Beat the Press today: "The alternative path to a recovery, which is almost certainly far superior from the standpoint of the economy's long-run health, is to have the growth in net exports lift the economy out of recession. . . . the only realistic way to reduce the trade deficit is to lower the value of the dollar."

From Dean Baker's Beat the Press yesterday:

The Post wants to sustain bubble-inflated house prices and they want the government to intervene to keep prices high . . .

But, just as the Bear Stearns bailout can ultimately be justified only if it helps restore lasting confidence in financial institutions, so must the various housing plans stem the decline in home prices.

Wow, if the Post has its way, a middle class home will always cost 6 or 7 times a middle class family's income in large parts of California and Florida and major cities on the East Coast. If such families want to become homeowners, they can look to spend 50 percent, or more, of their income on housing costs.

From Thomas Palley's blog yesterday:

The political economic philosophy of Keynesianism emerged after World War II following the catastrophic experience of the Great Depression. The new paradigm advocated an economy with full employment and shared prosperity, and gave government the critical role of regulating markets and adjusting monetary and fiscal policy to ensure levels of demand sufficient to generate full employment. [My emphasis.]

These Keynesian tools are now being applied forcefully. The Federal Reserve has dramatically cut its interest rate target in response to financial sector weakness. . . .

Simultaneously, the Bush administration has pushed for fiscal stimulus, albeit with its usual preference for tax cuts benefiting business and the rich that deliver little bang for buck. The Democratically controlled Congress has also gotten in on the act with stimulus packages . . .

. . . Everyone recognizes the need and efficacy of Keynesian policy instruments, including conservatives who are happy to promote tax cuts and interest rate reductions to support asset prices. However, most have forgotten the Keynesian goals of full employment and shared prosperity.

From Robert Reich's blog Sunday:

The average man in his 30s is earning less than his father did thirty years ago. Yet America is far richer. Where did the money go? To the top. . . .

We’re heading into the worst economic crisis in a half century or more. Many of the Americans who have been getting nowhere for decades are in even deeper trouble. Large numbers of people in Pennsylvania and across the nation are losing their homes and losing their jobs, and the situation is likely to grow worse. Consumers are at the end of their ropes, fuel and food costs are skyrocketing, they can’t go deeper into debt, they can’t pay their bills. They aren’t buying, which means every business from the auto industry to housing to even giant GE is hurting. Which means they’ll begin laying off more people, and as they do, we will experience an even more dangerous downward spiral.

Bitter? You ain’t seen nothing yet. And as much as people like Russert, Carville, Matalin, Schrum, and Murphy want to divert our attention from what’s really happening; as much as HRC and McCain seek to make political hay out of choices of words that can be spun cynically by the mindless spinners of the old politics; as much as demagogues on the right and left continue to try to channel the cumulative frustrations of Americans into a politics of resentment – all these attempts will, I hope, prove futile. Eighty percent of Americans know the nation is on the wrong track. The old politics, and the old media that feeds it, are irrelevant now.