[lbo-talk] Krugman: "The question then is why."

[Wojtek S]

Marv: " It's curious to see Wojtek indicting as vulgar economic
determinists precisely those who say the Obama administration could
have taken a different course well within the constraints imposed on
it by American capitalism."

[WS:] The fact that it is well within the constraints imposed by
American capitalism in general does not mean that it is within such
constraint at any particular point in time.  It might have been a
possible course of action a quarter or a half a century ago, when
capitalists still had to compromise with labor, but I do not think it
is a possible course of action now, because the balance of power
changed rather dramatically in favor of capitalists.

Wojtek