Monday, November 15, 2010

The hangover

Robert Samuelson looks to Japan's "lost decade" (which continues today) and how uncertainty and deficit-spending are sending us down the same path:

So Japan's economy is trapped: a high yen penalizes exports; low births and sclerotic firms hurt domestic growth. The lesson for us is that massive budget deficits and cheap credit are at best necessary stopgaps. They're narcotics whose effects soon fade. They can't correct underlying economic deficiencies. It's time to move on from the debate over "stimulus."

Economic success ultimately depends on private firms. The American economy is more resilient and flexible than Japan's. But that's a low standard. Neither the White House nor Congress seems to understand that growing regulatory burdens and policy uncertainties undermine business confidence and the willingness to expand. Unless that changes, our mediocre recovery may mimic Japan's.
The rejection of President Obama's policies is the story of the midterm elections, obvious to everybody but Obama and Paul Krugman who wrote his hundredth column today on how the stimulus should have been larger.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The rejection of President Obama's policies is the story of the midterm elections, obvious to everybody

What's even more obvious is why some people dearly want that to be "the story."

Eric said...

Well, all I'm saying is that Obama would dearly like to believe it was the "process" or "communication" or "an obsession with policy" - anything but a rejection of his Presidency.

Where are the compliments?!?

Anonymous said...

It's amusing how the right only talks about "mandates" because "elections have consequences" after Republican victories. Not that that's a one-way street, of course, but it is something you can set your clock by.

If the midterm elections have a story, it's probably a mde-up one. How many gamechanging, everything-is-upended-forever! elections have we had just in recent memory? It's a good reason to bet low. Especially on a midterm where almost all the bloodletting took place in the middle squib of Electoral No Man's Land.

How many NON-marginal House seats fell in 2010? And how many of those so-called "McCain Democrat" seats should be expected to hold when the missing Democratic voters return in two years? Obama's Presidency was mostly "rejected" by the people who'd already voted for the other guy.

Eric said...

That's how you're going to spin the biggest House swap in sixty years: la-di-dah?

Whatever, Axelrod.

I will bust a gut if one of the Republicans at this Thursday's White House dinner says the words "I (we) won" to Obama. He might start to cry (if so instructed by his teleprompter.)

Anonymous said...

No, not "la-di-dah," but "doo doo dee, dum doo doo, la la la." Namely, a very familiar song that we've heard in EACH of the past four midterm elections. 2006. 2002. 1998. 1994.

Remember when Karl Rove turned the Dems into the Whigs by orchestrating the "permanent Republican majority"? Man, I thought that epoch would never end!

And how about the time the Democrats reduced the reeling GOP to regional party status? Talk about a new world!

However, if you want to resuscitate the four-times-stale "THIS result means THIS!" totality shtick, go to town. If incredibly recent history is any guide, you don't have a window to celebrate in, you've got a mail slot.

As for me, I'll wait for all of the shat-out "How the ______ Did ______, Thereby Destroying ______ Forever!!!" books to turn up with a 1 cent pricetag on Amazon Sellers.

Eric said...

In my defense, I used the "bad book titles" back before election day.

http://vikingpundit.blogspot.com/2010/11/this-too-shall-pass-michael-gerson-has.html