So, Nancy Pelosi made a speech embracing austerity. And that's the ballgame, folks! Drive safely on the way home.
I wonder how well austerity works? It's failed in Portugal, Ireland and Greece, but those are tiny countries, surely with nothing to teach the USA! USA! USA!
Well, how about Great Britain? Unlike the PIGS, the UK is not forced by the Euro to march in lockstep with painful monetary policies, as they have the pound. They also have a similarly post-modern economy. How has their embrace of austerity gone?
Not well.
The weak growth is fuelling fears that Britain could lose its AAA credit rating unless the economy picks up sharply in the third quarter.
Hunh? I thought only massive debts could force you to lose your AAA rating. Turns out, having a sucky economy will do that, too.
The Austerity brigade likes to talk about running a national economy the way people run their personal finances.
In other words, they are using microeconomics to solve macroeconomic problems. In other other words, they are wrong, stupid and should be shown the door.
But, because our system of government is not well suited to handle certain crises, they are running the show.
Look on the bright side, you can bore your grandkids with tales about "When I was young, during the second Great Depression..."
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