April 12, 2011
WAMU, my local NPR affiliate, had an especially appalling segment of “Power Breakfast” this morning. The segment highlighted a congressional hearing on the topic of financial literacy and then commented on the obvious irony.
Of course there is no obvious irony to anyone who has ever learned any economics. The government’s large deficit (presumably the source of Power Breakfast’s “irony”) is supporting the economy right now. This spending is needed because the collapse of the housing bubble created a gap of more than $1.2 trillion in annual demand in the economy. Anyone who thinks that the government should balance its budget right now wants to throw millions more people out of work.
Our Power Breakfast crew might not understand enough economics to realize this fact, but that does not change the truth of the matter. It is of course ironic that someone who knows nothing about economics can have a job reporting on it, while millions of people who can do their jobs are going unemployed.
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