Purge-and-liquidate types popping up all over
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/opinion/krugman-things-are-not-ok.html?_r=3&hp
But theres also a sort of freestanding opposition to low interest rates, a sense that theres something wrong with cheap money and easy credit even in a desperately weak economy. I think of this as the urge to purge, after Andrew Mellon, Herbert Hoovers Treasury secretary, who urged him to let liquidation run its course, to purge the rottenness that he believed afflicted America.
And every time we get a bit of good news, the purge-and-liquidate types pop up, saying that its time to stop focusing on job creation.
Sure enough, no sooner were the new numbers out than James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Fed, declared that the new numbers make further Fed action to promote growth unnecessary. And the sad truth is that the good jobs numbers have definitely made it less likely that the Fed will take the expansionary action it should.
So heres what needs to be said about the latest numbers: yes, were doing a bit better, but no, things are not O.K. not remotely O.K. This is still a terrible economy, and policy makers should be doing much more than they are to make it better.