A reader writes:
You know, I don't agree with you much any more. But you nailed it in that post.
The only real economic (I don't care about the politics of any of it) solution for what we face can be summed up in one word: time. Lots and lots of time. The single, most important thing we can do is to avoid turning what's likely gonna be a problem the lasts another 5-10 years into a problem that lasts another 15-20 years.
In that vein (and again, I'm ignoring politics altogether), here is the problem with Keynesian solutions. We're a debtor country. Every $ of additional spending is an additional $ of debt creation. The marginal utility of each new dolar of debt has been negative for a couple years now. The multiplier effect is negative.
Keynesians aren't the problem.
Keynesianism isn't the problem. The problem is where we are. It's 2010, not the 30's or 60's or 90's or even early-00's. It can't work 'at this point in time'. We've stolen growth from the future for the last 25-30 years. The future is here. We're paying a steep price. We're giving back some (maybe alot) of what we took over all those years.
The choices made in the next 2-3 yrs will tell the take of whether this mess will end up lasting another 5-8 yrs or another 15 or more yrs. I wish I trusted either party to make the right choices.
I trust Obama more than the viable alternatives.
The Dish 