Economy

The Third Depression

Via Digby, Krugman's new column made a little nauseous. He's suggesting we've entered an era of another depression -- in this case, more of a 19th Century style "long depression."

Here's to hoping Krugman is wildly wrong.

Having been a little ass-kicked by the recession last year, I'm generally terrified by any mentions of "double-dip" and certainly the aforementioned D-word.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are playing out an infuriating strategy. Anything and everything the president does to mitigate the "D-word" is wrong, they say -- even if it's tax cuts (one-third of the stimulus spending was in the form of tax cuts). The Conservadems are happy to enable the Republicans, and so the president can't pass any new stimulus spending.

And so economic and jobs progress is held back. The Republicans use this to win more seats in the House, and if they manage to win a majority, their agenda becomes entirely about investigations. By the end of the president's first (or second) term, Americans are so fed up, voters elect Crazy Republican President X. And that's the endgame.