Monday, October 22, 2012

The Stimulus Was Too Small

Description: Front side (obverse) of one of th...
Description: Front side (obverse) of one of the Nobel Prize medals in Physiology or Medicine awarded in 1950 to researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I agree with Paul Krugman, my favorite political columnist. How many political columnists have a Nobel Prize? But I liked him plenty before he won the prize. Actually I was in disbelief he did. Columnists are not supposed to win Nobel Prizes, I remember thinking.

The Secret of Our Non-Success
the stimulus was both too small and too short-lived, partly because of administration errors but mainly because of scorched-earth Republican obstruction
And I argued the stimulus was too small back in 2009. Paul was going on deep knowledge, I was going on instinct.

The faster way to reduce the debt would be for this country to do another stimulus, this time a full trillion. But I don't see it happening. Such common sense would be too much to ask of the political system.
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