We’re going to get lectured a lot-probably by many of the same twenty-five year olds who have invested heavily in home decor featuring presidential power porn-on how the failure of this or that is due to a failure of all 300 million of us to come together like a bunch of Amish at a barn-raising. It will of course be the fault of the ideologues who think the Green Economy Five Year Plan is moronic, not a reflection of the diverse range of opinion in a free society, and certainly not that fact the Green Economy Five Year Plan will in fact be moronic.
A lot of readers have noticed my less-than-sunny outlook and subtly suggested that I must be off my meds. In those circumstances, it’s reassuring to read other perspectives of pessimistic paranoia.
READER COMMENTS
Larry
Nov 14 2008 at 8:36am
Interested in your take on Roubini’s summation in Forbes…
Arnold Kling
Nov 14 2008 at 8:54am
I am not such a fan of Roubini. He and Krugman have predicted 9 out of the last 1 recessions.
Eric Hanneken
Nov 14 2008 at 9:25am
You’ve linked to the Google Reader subscription to Will Wilkinson’s blog. This is the link you meant to provide.
aaron
Nov 14 2008 at 11:01am
Wilkinson is quite right about the green economy. People have pretty much missed how irrationally high demand for oil and gasoline caused risk to go up and initiated the meltdown. Both debt to income and debt to assets have been increasing for half a century. But the last few years, as oil and gas went up, expenses went up, and incomes stayed flat or fell. POP!
Thing is there’s still the consumer debt problem lurking and consumers don’t have the good information they will need to respond well to higher gas prices, even if it is done slowly at an expected rate.
EconNewbie
Nov 14 2008 at 1:14pm
His blog begins with:
“-Government attempts to do X would work a lot better if people who were ideologically opposed to the government’s doing X would just shut up and go away.”
Now lets replace the word “Government” with the words “free-market”. And the word “people” with the word “politicians”.
“Free-market attempts to do X would work a lot better if politicians who were ideologically opposed to the free-market’s doing X would just shut up and go away.”
I wonder how those 25 year olds in question would respond to that.
Otherwise, couldn’t the “Green economy” be able to compete with the “non green economy” in five years? I wouldn’t call it impossible, there may be a future in it.
floccina
Nov 14 2008 at 1:56pm
The democrats signed on the bailout very fast and easily, makes me think that they will extract quite a payment for the same. After all if you just bailed out the rich how can you hold back from any program that looks like it might help the poor?
Dr. T
Nov 14 2008 at 6:54pm
“A lot of readers have noticed my less-than-sunny outlook and subtly suggested that I must be off my meds.”
Yes, the economy sucks and will probably suck for the next ten years. That’s OK, take a Prosac!
I’m with Arnold Kling: There is no rosy near-term future for our economy, so some gloom is appropriate. I’m approaching retirement, and my net worth fell by 27%. That put a big, polarized shield between me and the sun. The government’s antics darkened the shield, and Obama’s election made it nearly opaque.
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