Courtesy of For 2 1/4 years now I have been saying that there is no chance of a repeat of the Great Depression or anything like it--that we know what to do and how to do it and will do it if things turn south.
I don’t think I can say that anymore. In my estimation the chances of another big downward shock to the U.S. economy--a shock that would carry us from the 1/3-of-a-Great-Depression we have now to 2/3 or more--are about 5%. And it now looks very much as if if such a shock hits the U.S. government will be unable to do a d—-- thing about it.
We could cushion the impact of another big downward shock by a lot more deficit spending--unemployment, after all, goes down whenever anybody spends more (even though sometimes falling unemployment comes at too-high a price in rising inflation), and the government’s money is as good as anybody else’s. But the centrist Democratic legislative caucus has now dug in its heels behind the position that we cannot undertake more deficit spending right now because we have a dire structural health-care financing problem after 2030.
The Republican legislative causes has now dug in its heels behind the position that the fact that unemployment is 10% shows not that policy earlier this year was too cautious but rather that it was ineffective. And the Obama administration has not been able or has not tried to move either of those groups out of their current entrenchments.
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So if another big bad shock hits the U.S. economy, what could the Obama administration possibly do?
Depression Debate
For starters it is clear we are in a depression. However, this gets back to the Depression Debate: Is This A Depression?
I say it is, for reasons given in the article. However, while this is "A" depression, this is clearly not the "Great Depression". Delong calls it 1/3 of the Great Depression. For the sake of argument let’s accept that.
Who’s To Blame?
DeLong is blaming Democrats and Republicans for not wanting to spend enough. He is right about the increasing odds, yet
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