AmericasDemocrat.org Netcast - March 10th, 2013

A Bank of England advisor sneers at economic austerity … and a historian invokes Donald Duck to explain how Americans got to love the income tax.

Is austerity the way to go to get us out of the fiscal crisis? One of the world’s leading economists says no, that austerity is a “lose-lose” proposition right now.

And with the deadline just one month away, a historian tells us that the income tax was an idea supported by the “little people” – and Donald Duck.

And Bill Press talks with a Catholic journalist, and priest, who says the odds are against an American being elected pope.

Adam Posen is one of the world’s leading economists, and until recently the only American to serve on the British equivalent of the U.S. Federal Reserve bank. He tells us why austerity is not the answer to our fiscal woes and that deficit reduction should wait until economic times are better.
http://www.iie.com/staff/author_bio.cfm?author_id=9

How did Irving Berlin and Donald Duck figure in the history of the income tax? Historian Molly MIchelmore explains that income taxes were once seen as good for farmers, working people and small businesses … but some Hollywood hoopla was needed to get people to support increased taxes to pay for World War 2.
http://www.wlu.edu/x25015.xml?InsertFile=x24164

Bill Press and his guest, Father Tom Reese on the chances of an American becoming pope.
http://votf.org/page/rev-thomas-j-reese-sj/6168

The mythical "Dow" versus the real "Doug".