Political Roots in U.S. Economic Crisis

NYT editorial

By nearly every recent measure — growth, consumer spending, manufacturing, house prices and stock prices — the American economy is struggling. The jobs report for July, released on Friday, was a bit better than expected, but still grim.

The question now is whether Washington will move beyond the wrongheaded focus on budget cuts — the last thing a faltering economy needs — to job creation.

With the debt limit fight over for now, President Obama has ratcheted up the talk about jobs. That is a start, but only a start. What the economy needs is real government investment to support demand and create new jobs.

The handicappers will tell you that that is impossible given Congressional Republicans’ fierce opposition to any new spending or new revenues. The alternative is months, and even years, of stagnation or worse.

(More here.)