収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

We're not going to deal with this problem by either trying to go back to the consumer debt-driven economy or by doing nothing and just waiting for all the debt to play out while job losses mount and our productive capacity collapses.

One of the virtues of government spending in a recession is that it can help fill the GDP gap and avoid deeper job losses, maintain or even raise incomes, and invest in technologies that increase the standard of living and produce future economic growth. And it can continue while consumers get their finances back in order with increased savings without falling prey to the paradox of thrift. It's true that we'll have to pay back that debt eventually, but the financing costs are much less than the benefits.

My problem with the Obama administration is that it errs in doing too little, and focusing what it does do too much on getting things back to the (broken) way they were. They would do better to focus on job-generating spending that would raise incomes rather than just fix the immediate problem so that people can go on creating debt. But doing nothing is worse than that, and there's enough productive investment in the stimulus bill and enough of a change in public outlook that I think the old days of putting everything on the credit card or mortgage might still be on the way out.