December 21, 2003
Deficits, public spending, and growth
Posted by
Mark Kleiman
Brad DeLong has some thoughts, and some numbers, on politics and macroeconomics. Read them now.
DeLong's message is pretty grim: reckless fiscal irresponsibility, a la Reagan I and Bush II, may be a better political strategy than fiscal responsibility. When are we going to hear about Republican members of the Concord Coalition walking away from the candidate of the credit-card conservatives? Not soon, I'd bet.
One factor DeLong doesn't mention: tight labor markets make free-trade policies politically palatable. For a while, the Democrats were returning to their free-trade roots. Now it looks as if Dean and Gephardt trying to lead them back into the protectionist wilderness.
