Fatal Distraction - Aren’t you glad we pivoted from jobs to deficits a year and a half ago? (Krugman

[jefferson_dem]

Fatal Distraction

Zero job growth, with unemployment still at nosebleed levels. Meanwhile, the interest rate on 10-year US bonds is down to 2.04%, and it’s negative on inflation-protected securities.

Aren’t you glad we pivoted from jobs to deficits a year and a half ago?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, Is austerity killing Europe’s recovery?

After more than a year of aggressive budget cutting by European governments, an economic slowdown on the continent is confronting policymakers from Madrid to Frankfurt with an uncomfortable question: Have they been addressing the wrong problem?

Yah think?

Too bad there weren’t any prominent economists warning that the obsession with short-term deficits was a terrible mistake, that austerity would undermine hopes of recovery. Oh, wait.

The awful thing is that those of us who warned about all this — based not on some unorthodox doctrine, but on basic textbook macroeconomics — weren’t so much argued down as just ignored. Somehow, those with actual power were convinced that fiscal austerity wasn’t just an option but the only option, and that anyone arguing with that — even people like me and Joe Stiglitz, who had a few easy-to-understand credentials — were just not part of the serious discussion.

<SNIP>

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/fatal-distraction/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Did I hear a sound from under the bus?

Just a squeaky economist, nothing to see here folks, move along.

[Hawkowl]

6. Obama has thrown so many under the bus...

that the wheels have finally come off!

[phantom power]

2. The icing on the cake: the GOP will, absolutely, campaign on jobs and blame the Dems...

They'll cheerfully blame the Dems for the high unemployment. This will work, because the Dems cheerfully allowed themselves to get sucked into the GOP framing on economics.

[daa]

3. Facts are there are 2 million fewer private sector workers

than in 2000, the first time there is an 11-year loss since 1938. If a democrat isn't attempting democratic solutions to the problems then he is a part of the problem.

[gordianot]

4. Just wondering who is responsible for this shift besides Republicans?????

[jefferson_dem]

5. Teabaggers. Media. Complacent Democrats who would rather divide us than confront them.

Three answers right there.

[high density]

7. Thanks Obama for accepting the GOP frames on the deficit

GOP runs up massive debt in record deficits under Bush.
GOP ignores deficits and debt for a decade.
Democrat gets into the White House.
The GOP tells us that the "job killing" deficits are now a crippling problem and these deficits were created by Obama and the Democrats.
Obama decides to focus on spending cuts instead of growth.

It feels like the GOP wins no matter who is elected.

[woo me with science]

8. When were we ever seriously on jobs? nt

[high density]

9. Well, we did the "stimulus"

Of course we let the Republicans water that down to near-useless levels. Obama and the Democrats now get blamed since it didn't kick off huge growth that economists warned it never could accomplish to begin with.

[Logical]

10. Oh No, that means Krugman will be "stupid" on the GDP today.

Krugman's intelligence changes daily here. Depending on what he says.