The Fix the Debt Fix Is Still In - Paul Krugman

[Bill USA]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/the-fix-the-debt-fix-is-still-in/

So, Bill Clinton says that I’m right in the short run while Simpson-Bowles are right in the long run; he’s half right. But what’s interesting is to see the Peterson juggernaut still rolling along despite the enormous intellectual hit the cause has received.

And there are some truly disturbing things about the double standards still applied to Peterson-backed deficit scoldery.

Ezra Klein noted a while back that reporters don’t think the usual rules about even trying to seem neutral don’t apply when the deficit scolds are concerned, that

On this one issue, reporters are permitted to openly cheer a particular set of highly controversial policy solutions.

Something a bit similar is taking place when it comes to the role of colleges in nurturing the deficit scolds of tomorrow. Alec MacGillis reports on the lavish rewards for college students participating in It’s Up To Us, yet another tentacle of the deficit-scold octopus, this time mobilizing the young. If you read the front organization’s site, it seems to imply that universities — not just individual student organizations — are involved, and my understanding is that it looks that way at some of the schools too; in effect, political advocacy is being masked as general public service, because of course promoting Simpson-Bowles is the patriotic thing to do, right?

Austerity mania, it turns out, isn’t just a disaster on intellectual and policy grounds; it has also turned into an ethical morass.

[bemildred]

1. That's how the Big Lie works. nt