What The Depression Teaches Us Is That

The Great Thing About Fiscal Policy Is That It Has A Direct Impact And Doesn't Require You To Bind The Hands Of Future Policymakers.

[t]he Next Time You Hear Serious-sounding People Explaining The Need For Fiscal Austerity, Try To Parse Their Argument. Almost Surely, You'll Discover That What Sounds Like Hardheaded Realism Actually Rests On A Foundation Of Fantasy, On The Belief That Invisible Vigilantes Will Punish Us If We're Bad And The Confidence Fairy Will Reward Us If We're Good. And Real-world Policy - Policy That Will Blight The Lives Of Millions Of Working Families - Is Being Built On That Foundation.

Where's That Toxic Rhetoric Coming From? Let's Not Make A False Pretense Of Balance: It's Coming, Overwhelmingly, From The Right. It's Hard To Imagine A Democratic Member Of Congress Urging Constituents To Be "armed And Dangerous" Without Being Ostracized; But Representative Michele Bachmann, Who Did Just That, Is A Rising Star In The G.o.p.

People Who Are Complaining About The Fed Are People Who've Been Predicting Runaway Inflation For Five And Six Years, And It Hasn't Happened.

I Predict That In The Years Ahead Enron, Not Sept. 11, Will Come To Be Seen As The Greater Turning Point In U.s. Society.