Gone where Romney would have us go

Krugman:

Now Britain is officially in double-dip recession....

Needless to say, [under Cameron's ideological leadership] they will not change course, which means that Britain will continue on a death spiral of self-defeating austerity.

Krugman links to an analysis by Brad DeLong and Larry Summers:

[I]t is a failure to engage in expansionary fiscal policy right now--a failure to speed recovery and so reduce the long-term shadow cast on future productivity by the downturn--that is the real threat to long-run fiscal stability.

DeLong and Summers literally do the math--that is, the econometrics--of their argument, which is beyond the comprehension of a poor, humble humanities major such as myself. But that's OK. Additional personnel serving the cause of social-scientific evidence and empirical data would have no effect whatsoever on pseudoconservative ideologues, anyway. They'll do whatever they wish to do, however they wish to do it, and to hell with proven reality.

Comments

[Suzanne Holland]

Amen....well said.......scary, isn't it......

[Peter G]

Well I can understand the math and the supposition underlying the econometrics are key to the applicability of the model to any country's economy. The fact is that the US clearly meets the criteria for a self financing expansionary policy where many others do not. This is principally due to the currency of the United States being the de facto world medium of exchange. The safe harbor of US treasury bonds and the yield rates make this stimulatory policy affordable. This is not the same situation in Great Britain which is, by the way ,borrowing a great deal in the bond markets, but I very seriously doubt could borrow their way out of their difficulties the way the US could. Greece of course couldn't begin to dent their problems presuming they could find someone to buy their sovereign bonds.