Paul Krugman is worried about the thinking at the White House. Really worried. And, you can tell as much by the title of his post: Confidence Fairies Have Infiltrated The White House.
On ABC's "Good Morning America" earlier today, George Stephanopoulos told Krugman about a conversation he had with an Obama administration official "who asserted that what we need to get businesses investing is for business to know that the government has stopped — presumably, that means no new spending, no new regulation, whatever." Now, we all know that George has many friends in the Obama administration. He used to work with some of them.
Krugman's response is pretty powerful and hard-hitting:
And it’s shocking — not that people are saying this, but that someone inside the administration is saying it.Ouch.
It’s garbage, of course: businesses are refusing to invest because they don’t see enough demand for their products. And administration economists know that it’s garbage. But obviously some people in the WS — I’m guessing a political person, but who knows — have bought the right-wing line hook, line, and sinker.
We’ll never know what might have happened if Obama and co. had actually had the courage of their convictions; what we do know is that they have undermined their own message at every turn.
Putting politics first could seriously undermine our economic future. People expected more from Obama.
