The Hijacked Crisis - Paul Krugman

[kpete]

The Hijacked Crisis
Paul Krugman
New York Times
August 12, 2011

Has market turmoil left you feeling afraid? Well, it should. Clearly, the economic crisis that began in 2008 is by no means over.

But there’s another emotion you should feel: anger. For what we’re seeing now is what happens when influential people exploit a crisis rather than try to solve it.

For more than a year and a half — ever since President Obama chose to make deficits, not jobs, the central focus of the 2010 State of the Union address — we’ve had a public conversation that has been dominated by budget concerns, while almost ignoring unemployment. The supposedly urgent need to reduce deficits has so dominated the discourse that on Monday, in the midst of a market panic, Mr. Obama devoted most of his remarks to the deficit rather than to the clear and present danger of renewed recession…

…
…Check out the opinion page of any major newspaper, or listen to any news-discussion program, and you’re likely to encounter some self-proclaimed centrist declaring that there are no short-run fixes for our economic difficulties, that the responsible thing is to focus on long-run solutions and, in particular, on “entitlement reform” — that is, cuts in Social Security and Medicare. And when you do encounter such a person, you should be aware that people like that are a major reason we’re in so much trouble…



…So how did Washington discourse come to be dominated by the wrong issue?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/opinion/the-hijacked-crisis.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

[izquierdista]

1. Must be that middle name

For all that ignorant hissing about HUSSEIN Obama, it seems more like the H is for Hoover.

[WillyT]

2. K & R !!!

:kick: