The past five years reflect "an immense failure of economic policy," writes economist Paul Krugman in his New York Times column. And economic policies continue to fail, he stresses.
It's been five years since Lehman Brothers collapsed. A second Great Depression was averted. "But, by any objective standard, U.S. economic policy since Lehman has been an astonishing, horrifying failure," Krugman says.
Millions of discouraged Americans, he says, have probably dropped permanently out of the labor force, millions of young Americans have probably seen their lifetime career prospects permanently damaged, cuts in public investment have inflicted long-term damage on our infrastructure and our educational system.
The output gap – the difference between the value of goods and services produced and the potential value – is over $2 trillion.
"That’s trillions of dollars of pure waste, which we will never get back," Krugman writes.
The percentage of adult Americans employed dropped from 63 percent to 59 percent and remains stuck there. Only a small part of that is due to an aging population. It's mostly because of failed economic policy.
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What he writes is true.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Krugman believes that the federal government should have intervened more, not less.
Far from the Austrian school.
DeleteOnce a Keynesian always a Keynesian. Krugman is a bullshit artist.
ReplyDeleteEasy way to make filthy lucre.
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