NP - Structural w/ Austerity or Demand-Lack w/ Stimulus?

[eburns at gmail.com]

The argument is between papering over cracks in the ceiling and then doing it again (and over and over) every time it rains, or ripping the roof off and putting up a new one. The former is politically expedient and makes people happy until it rains; the second is hard, takes time, is disruptive, and only after it's done do the benefits become visible & thus politically useful. Everybody in their right mind wants the permanent fix, but human (and political) nature is to go for the short term win and let someone else worry about the long term. 

Personally, I think Krugman is a bounder and opportunist whose sole priority in life is to maintain the Krugman brand.
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-----Original Message-----
From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
Sender: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 14:44:44 
To: Charles Albert<cfalbert at gmail.com>
Cc: Paul Mackin<mackin.paul at verizon.net>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Re: NP - Structural w/ Austerity or Demand-Lack w/ Stimulus?

Krug:

*So what’s with the obsessive push to declare our problems “structural”?
And, yes, I mean obsessive. Economists have been debating this issue for
several years, and the structuralistas won’t take no for an answer, no
matter how much contrary evidence is presented.

The answer, I’d suggest, lies in the way claims that our problems are deep
and structural offer an excuse for not acting, for doing nothing to
alleviate the plight of the unemployed.

Of course, structuralistas say they are not making excuses. They say that
their real point is that we should focus not on quick fixes but on the long
run — although it’s usually far from clear what, exactly, the long-run
policy is supposed to be, other than the fact that it involves inflicting
pain on workers and the poor.*

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