NOBEL LAUREATE AGAINST NEO-HOOVERISM.

In his column today, Paul Krugman takes a bold stand for the forces of macroeconomics:

If Barack Obama becomes president, he won’t have the same knee-jerk opposition to spending. But he will face a chorus of inside-the-Beltway types telling him that he has to be responsible, that the big deficits the government will run next year if it does the right thing are unacceptable.

He should ignore that chorus. The responsible thing, right now, is to give the economy the help it needs. Now is not the time to worry about the deficit.

Nobel jokes aside, here's a question about the chorus that Krugman mentions -- where do they get their ideas? In debates and on Sunday round-tables, it always surprises me when someone like Tom Brokaw just sort of assumes that we're going to have cut spending or social security benefits without ever saying why they think that is important or effective. Presumably the Concord Coalition feeds them their talking points but they could at least make an argument. The framing of the economic policy questions at the debates is the rough equivalent of a journalist asking a question after 9/11 by saying, "Well, we've seen Al Qaeda attack us and we all know we know have to invade Iraq. Which one of you will be the first to invade Iraq?"

--Tim Fernholz