No, We Can’t? Or Won’t? (Krugman)

[dtotire]

No, We Can’t? Or Won’t?


By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: July 10, 2011 .



If you were shocked by Friday’s job report, if you thought we were doing well and were taken aback by the bad news, you haven’t been paying attention. The fact is, the United States economy has been stuck in a rut for a year and a half.

Yet a destructive passivity has overtaken our discourse. Turn on your TV and you’ll see some self-satisfied pundit declaring that nothing much can be done about the economy’s short-run problems (reminder: this “short run” is now in its fourth year), that we should focus on the long run instead.

This gets things exactly wrong. The truth is that creating jobs in a depressed economy is something government could and should be doing. Yes, there are huge political obstacles to action — notably, the fact that the House is controlled by a party that benefits from the economy’s weakness. But political gridlock should not be conflated with economic reality.


more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/opinion/11krugman.html?hpmor

[OHdem10]

1. Both Parties parrot:: The Private Sector creates the jobs.

In other words they are committed to the same set
of Free Market Principles.(Conservative Economic Fundamentalism)

[Recursion]

4. Even at their height the WPA and CCC didn't get unemployment below 15%

The government actually isn't very fast or responsive at hiring people distributed across the country -- and the CCC basically moved people to camps in the wilderness to avoid that problem.

[roxiejules]

2. The government hasn't done anything to fix the economy

Our failure to create jobs is a choice, not a necessity — a choice rationalized by an ever-shifting set of excuses.

[Hydra]

3. "No, we won't"

But we'll be happy to let you die in the crisis we created. That'd be just fine...

[chill_wind]

5. K & R. n/t