Quote of the Day

"FDR told us the only factor we needed to fear was fear itself. However when future historians think back at our monstrously unsuccessful reaction to economic downturn, they most likely will not blame fear, by itself. Rather, they'll castigate our leaders for fearing the incorrect things. ...While debt fears were and therefore are misguided, there is a real danger we have overlooked: the corrosive effect, social and economic, of persistent high unemployment. And even while the situation for debt [alarmism] is falling apart, our worst fears concerning the damage from lengthy-term unemployment are now being confirmed. ...We're indeed developing a permanent type of unemployed People in america. And let us be obvious: this can be a policy decision."—Paul Krugman, inside a great piece around the ongoing US unemployment crisis.Which, like a not-minor aside, doesn't demonize those who are unemployed, unlike most of the pieces about this subject. Krugman is comfortable with the folly of tasking people with finding methods to systemic problems.