It was heartening to find that there is still an enclave within the party that calls itself "conservative" that actually has conversations about reality, not ideology. Over at "American Conservative," they're still talking about what matters even as Congressional Republicans and Republican campaigners are stuck in a foxhole.
Maybe some candidates will wake up and find that Paul Krugman was right all along in the argument about stimulus vs. austerity. As an economist who has been watching what austerity measures have done to Europe, he has a right to crow. And we should be grateful that Obama won the fight, if only partially, against strict austerity measures in the US.
Which is not to say that all is well with U.S. policy. True, the federal government has avoided all-out austerity. But state and local governments, which must run more or less balanced budgets, have slashed spending and employment as federal aid runs out — and this has been a major drag on the overall economy. Without those spending cuts, we might already have been on the road to self-sustaining growth; as it is, recovery still hangs in the balance. ...Paul Krugman, NYT
Which means, in turn, that we are bound to be affected by the downturn in Britain and on the continent.
...We may get tipped in the wrong direction by Continental Europe, where austerity policies are having the same effect as in Britain, with many signs pointing to recession this year.
The infuriating thing about this tragedy is that it was completely unnecessary. Half a century ago, any economist — or for that matter any undergraduate who had read Paul Samuelson’s textbook “Economics” — could have told you that austerity in the face of depression was a very bad idea. But policy makers, pundits and, I’m sorry to say, many economists decided, largely for political reasons, to forget what they used to know. And millions of workers are paying the price for their willful amnesia. ...Paul Krugman, NYT
In light of the real turnaround and improving employment numbers already experienced by many Americans over the past several months, it seems bizarre to even imagine that we would chuck a growing economy for a return to double-digit unemployment, bickering and lies, and a repeat of the fear we felt in mid-2008 when both the economy and the financial system were in freefall. But "bizarre" is precisely how most realists describe the lockstep ideology candidates on the right -- whether they're in Europe or America.
