June 4, 2011

Paul Krugman: The Lesser of Two Evils?

By Jon N. Hall
In times when there are no good alternatives, tradeoffs can become an acceptance of an increase in one bad thing in order to affect a decrease in another bad thing seen as being the greater evil.  Progressives think the central tradeoff right now is between the federal deficit and unemployment, and they believe we must accept an increase in the deficit in order to bring down unemployment. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman thinks the deficit is the lesser of our two evils.  In column after column he has urged that unemployment be tackled first and the deficit later.  On March 25, Krugman wrote: Two years ago, faced with soaring unemployment and large budget deficits -- both the consequences of a severe financial crisis -- most advanced-country leaders seemingly understood that the problems had to be tackled in sequence, with an immediate focus on creating jobs combined with a long-run strategy of deficit reduction. Progressives like Krugman treat unemployment with...(Read Full Article)