Let's Not Run Scared.

Ya know what? I think I have to agree with Paul Krugman, the N.Y. Times editorialist. He a Nobel prize winner for economics, which means he knows a little bit about the subject. That's not to say he can't be wrong sometimes, but mostly he's been right. See, he claims that cutting spending and increasing interest rates to reduce debt will not bring us out of the Great Recession. The big problem, he says, is unemployment, not debt. Now, most fiscal conservatives say that cutting spending will create jobs. Krugman says just the opposite will happen. It will cause a Depression under current circumstances. Conservatives believe that restraint in spending and higher interest rates will spark confidence in the markets. Now if you were a store owner or a manufacturer and interest rates went up and sales went down, how much confidence would you have? Enough to hire more employees? It's one thing for you or me to decide to cut back on purchasing in order to save some money. But if all your, and my, friends, relatives and acquaintances cut back too, then who's going to buy the products that will put people back to work? In fact if everybody cuts back too much, then people who have jobs now, will begin to loose those jobs. If that happens, we'll be in a Depression. Now, nobody is suggesting that we all rush out and start a spending spree like drunken fools, but we should resume normal spending, cautiously. So, think about a new toaster oven or how about a new formal gown? What about next weeks groceries? How about just one thing you hadn't planned on? For me, it's the gown.