Kick that can! An interesting analogy for the stalling of the fiscal problem facing Americans today. As Paul Krugman, a professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, he refutes the statement made by John Boehner, the speaker of the House that “At some point, Washington has to deal with its spending problem, I’ve watched them kick this can down the road for 22 years since I’ve been here. I’ve had enough of it. It’s time to act.” He does this by mentioning that the government was doing fine and that the ratio of federal debt to G.D.P. was a third lower when Bill Clinton left office than it was when he came in.
The point of course, is not that Boehner’s apparently wrong according to Krugman, but that now is not the time to act upon the rather pressing issue of the fiscal cliff and growing government debt. How exactly does he manage to present his argument? Using statistics and historical trends, as well as current ones (specifically Ireland), he argues that cutting government spending actually hurts the economy. Then he moves on to look at historical post-wartime and post-Depression economies and the policies that worked then. It is an effective method and is convincing, though it may not sway all readers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/opinion/krugman-kick-that-can.html?_r=1&
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