Tax Cuts Were Not Going To Be

Consumer Spending Is Now Plunging At Serious-recession Rate ... Even If The Rescue Now In Train Succeeds In Unfreezing Credit Markets, The Real Economy Has Immense Downward Momentum. In Addition To Financial Rescues, We Need Major Stimulus Programs.

The Fact Is That The Two Years Or So After 9/11 Were A Terrible Time In America – A Time Of Political Exploitation And Intimidation, Culminating In The Deliberate Misleading Of The Nation Into The Invasion Of Iraq. It’s Probably Worth Pointing Out That I’m Not Saying Anything Now That I Wasn’t Saying In Real Time Back Then, When Bush Had A Sky-high Approval Rating And Any Criticism Was Denounced As Treason. And There’s Nothing I’ve Done In My Life Of Which I’m More Proud.

There Are No Atheists In Foxholes And There Are No Libertarians In Financial Crises.

Until The Great Depression, Most Economists Clung To A Vision Of Capitalism As A Perfect Or Nearly Perfect System. That Vision Wasn’t Sustainable In The Face Of Mass Unemployment, But As Memories Of The Depression Faded, Economists Fell Back In Love With The Old, Idealized Vision Of An Economy In Which Rational Individuals Interact In Perfect Markets.

Economists Don't Usually Make Good Speculators, Because They Think Too Much.