We Can't Spend Our Way Out of Trouble
By Charles Lane, Washington PostA recent Post editorial took on progressive economists and pundits who argue that the United States' World War II experience proves massive deficit spending is the best cure for a depressed economy -- and that the same treatment should work today. For these analysts, the problem with today's $1.4 trillion deficit is that it's too small. We urged President Obama to ignore their advice. Well, now William Greider, The Nation magazine's national affairs correspondent, has fired back, taking the Post board to task for peddling deficit "hysteria."
"The United States needs something similar today," Greider writes. He proposes a massive public employment program centered on energy conservation and the like, coupled with public works such as the construction of high-speed rail systems. We can pay off the debt, he says, "after the economy recovers."
It's hard to @#$%& Greider's argument too specifically, because he never quite says how much... (Read Full Article)
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