Debt is not good - austerity is worse.

(To read more on the impact of austerity, follow the link.)

From the Political Carnival

Now Reuters is buttressing those reports with this:

    Austerity is having a devastating effect on health in Europe and North America, driving suicide, depression and infectious diseases and reducing access to medicines and care, researchers said on Monday.

    Detailing a decade of research, Oxford University political economist David Stuckler [a senior researcher at Oxford University and co-author The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills] and Sanjay Basu, an assistant professor of medicine and an epidemiologist at Stanford University, said their findings show austerity is seriously bad for health. [...]

    [M]ore than five million Americans have lost access to healthcare during the latest recession, they argue, while in Britain, some 10,000 families have been pushed into homelessness by the government's austerity budget.

The good die young

Putting our young people through the horrific nature of war and the culture of being in the military is questionable.  Maybe it's time to rethink our position in the world that has us with military everywhere.

Republican's Are Nasty SOB's

You can argue that the AIG bonuses are an outrage - that executives from a company that has lost over $100 billion and cost taxpayers an equal amount do not even deserve to be employed at that company, let alone be paid bonuses. Obviously there were some pretty badly executed contracts with the executives if the bonuses weren't contingent on a successful year for the company, but is that any excuse for calling for the death penalty?

If you've ever had any doubt that Republicans can be heartless, vicious bastards, then let that doubt vanish now. The following report is from Progress Report, 3/17/2009.

RADICAL RIGHT -- CONSERVATIVES SUGGEST DEATH FOR AIG EXECS SET TO RECEIVE BONUSES: Politicians and pundits from both sides of the aisle have expressed outrage at the recent news that bailed-out insurance giant AIG will be paying $165 million in bonuses to same executives that "brought the company to the brink of collapse." President Obama and members of Congress are trying to figure out a way to revoke the bonuses, while others have called for top executives to be fired. While conservatives have joined in the mass discontent with AIG, some are taking their anger a bit too far. Yesterday on a local Iowa radio show, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) suggested that AIG executives consider committing suicide. And last night on Fox News, far right pundit Charles Krauthammer and his milder counterpart Mort Kondracke argued that some should be put to death. "I would be for an exemplary hanging or two. Have it in Times Square, invite Madame DuFarge. You borrow a guillotine from the French and we could have a party," Krauthammer exclaimed. Kondracke agreed. "I was going to recommend boiling in oil in Times Square, but look, because these are the people who invented these crazy credit default swaps that are leading to the whole disaster," he said.

Wealthy Jerks

The damage done by the freewheeling bankers and investors around the world is probably immeasurable. I know I think about the lost value of my retirement savings every time I read about our economic crisis, and I am just a small player in the investment world.

This story in Gawker is just one of the two suicides I've read about following the Madoff scandal...

William Foxton, a 65-year-old retired British military officer, shot himself in the head after losing his life's savings in Madoff's $50 billion moneysuck.

His son Willard told Britain's Sky News that his father was distraught, telling his son "I've lost all the money, I might have to declare myself bankrupt."

Willard added a statement of his own:

"I want Madoff and others involved to know that they have my father's blood on their hands."

Suicide Soldier