The deficit cutters and budget balancers have been routed in the field of economics. All those worries about government debts have been debunked. It turns out Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, the academics who provided the intellectual justification for cutting deficits, actually got their math wrong. Their 2010 paper, which said economic growth slows once debt hits 90% of gross domestic product, involved some spreadsheet errors. Everyone on the left, from Paul Krugman to Stephen Colbert, has formed a massive conga line. Da-da-da-da-da-DA, da-da-da-da-DA…
We can now borrow, and print, all the money we need. Gold has collapsed. Happy times are here again …
Or so a lot of people are saying. Turns out, though, there is a lot more to the story. And you’re not hearing that side.
I should start, by the way, by declaring my own interest. I have none. I am neither a partisan Keynesian nor a partisan austerian. I’m not on a “team.” I subscribe to the quaint notion that I should judge each dispute on its own merits, rather than as a member of a “blue” or “red” team. (Yes, I know. Ridiculous, isn’t it?) Given that absolutely everybody else commenting on this story appears to be wearing a red or blue shirt, I have spent the week increasingly frustrated that I couldn’t get a clear picture of the truth. Many of you probably feel the same way.
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