More "meh" jobs numbers. Better than Europe, worse than they should be.
Again, if you were to corner Greg Mankiw or other academic conservative economists, they would probably admit that austerity doesn't work.
Mankiw and others all said, "Of course if you spend $800 billion you're going to get increased economic activity, but...." and then left to check out the cheese platter.
Austerity is based on the Austrian theory that economic downturns are really healthy. They purge the economy of, I don't know, employees and customers or something. Hayek compared them to summer thunderstorms that clear the air.
Of course, we all live in the South these days and in the South, thunderstorms just lead to more humidity. And economic pain, made worse by austerity, just means more economic pain. The PIIGS, Britain... you name it. A country that is experiencing austerity is seeing much worse than we are.
What's more, I'd love to see state-by-state unemployment figures. Obama should be in trouble because of the economy, but unemployment isn't spread evenly across the country or across demographic groups. African Americans, for instance, are being hammered by the labor market. Think they are going vote for the Marquis de Mittens?
Elizabeth Warren has an ad running that I've seen about a million times in five days. It speaks of infrastructure spending, primarily.
If we have a unified government in January, no matter if it's Republican or Democratic, I think we will finally get some more infrastructure spending.
Because austerity is failing.
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