On his blog, Nobel-laureate economimist and Times columnist Paul Krugman suggests the future. He begins:
What’s going to happen, economically and politically, over the next few years? Nobody knows, of course. But I have a vision — what I think is the most likely course of events. It’s fairly grim — but not in the approved way. This vision lies behind a lot of what I’ve been writing, so it might clarify things for regular readers if I laid it out explicitly.
The rest is worth your time. He’s been right on most things.
Krugman has been beating this drum for almost a month now. I have to say, I’m surprised Democrats haven’t started talking jobs yet. There are a lot of out-of-work people out there, and they’re not going to care about much besides that come election day next year. I think there’s a point to be made about Republican obstructionism, but the Dems have to be trying to do something for that to resonate.
But without some sort of action on that front, Krugman is right — Congress did too little too late on the stimulus front. Anything they do now on jobs will be the same (just like they’re doing with health care reform and with cap and trade).
It’s maddening to behold: the most energized election in decades produces the biggest Democratic majority in a generation, but they can’t keep it together for 12 months to pass the signature issue of the campaign.