With all the negative analysis regarding the new next-leg downturn, you would hope that the Obama administration had a plan. According to UC Berkeley economist Brad DeLong, that's not the case.
In a short, striking post DeLong quotes Mark Thoma, who says in part:
We have millions of people out of work, we face the prospect of a five to ten year recovery for employment, yet the administration has no plans to even try to push Congress to do more. ... [I]t's hard to conclude that the unemployed are anywhere near the top of the list.And then DeLong adds this:
Two and a half years ago I remember asking a couple of newly-chosen Obama appointees: That's fine, but what if it isn't enough and we don't get a strong recovery. What is Plan B? You have to be thinking about Plan B.This isn't hyperbole. He's joined the list of those who sound really frightened.
Now it is clear: there is no Plan B. There never was a Plan B.
It's got to be hubris that caused this; what else could it be? We're way past stupid. I have a Plan B when I go make coffee.
Update: Paul Krugman piles on. First he quotes Christina Romer, "There was a definite split among the economics team [in the fall of 2009] about whether we should push for more fiscal stimulus, or switch our focus to the deficit." Then he says:
This matches what I was hearing. And it tells you that it wasn’t just the Republicans: a substantial faction within the administration was eager to “pivot” away from the jobs issue. ... The case for doing more ... was overwhelming.Hawkery — shades of Amy Winehouse.
Yet even within the administration, people were itching for a switch to deficit hawkery.
GP
