Broder begins by musing over the state in which Barack Obama has found himself, and then the analysis begins:I enlarged and bolded the above sentence because republicans lie about it on a daily basis and herds of people believe them.
The steps that have been ordered so far in Washington have done nothing more than put the brakes on the runaway decline. They have not spurred new growth.
This is untrue. The American economy has now been growing for five consecutive quarters.
Broder says:
Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.The Economist:
Oh, this is bad. Set aside that Mr Broder appears to be utterly ignorant of the niceties of academic debate concerning the role of World War II in ending the Depression. Let's operate within the mental model he's using. In this model, war ends recessions. Why does he think war ends recessions? Presumably he credits increased government spending for stimulating demand. But that would seemingly work for other kinds of government spending, as well. Why not encourage those, non-killing oriented kinds of spending? The answer would seem to be that Republicans wouldn't favour it. READ MORE
