We’re Doing Worse Than Anyone Could Have Imagined A Few Years Ago, Krugman Notes, But People Have Started To Accept Terrible Economic Conditions As the New Normal

There may not be “any major economic crises underway right this moment,” but that doesn’t mean we’re not stuck in the middle of a “miserable” economic situation, writes New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

So dire is our current situation that even paltry economic news — like 1 percent growth in Spain’s depressed economy with 55 percent youth unemployment — is celebrated as a major triumph. “We’re doing worse than anyone could have imagined a few years ago,” Krugman notes in his Friday column, but people have started to accept terrible economic conditions as the new normal:

How did this happen? … I’d argue that an important source of failure was what I’ve taken to calling the timidity trap — the consistent tendency of policy makers who have the right ideas in principle to go for half-measures in practice, and the way this timidity ends up backfiring, politically and even economically.

In other words, Yeats had it right: the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

I love Paul Krugman and I don't care who knows.

Yes, he's too forgiving of Obama and all his troubles with the big, bad, meanie weenie Repugnicans, but still . . . he can turn a phrase when it's necessary.

And, friends, it's past necessary.

Friday, Mar 21, 2014 12:18 PM EST

“We’re Doing Worse Than Anyone Could Have Imagined:" Paul Krugman Says the “Good Guys” Must Fight the “Pain Caucuses”

People have started to accept our terrible economic situation as the "new normal." That has to change, Krugman says.

Katie Mcdonough

There may not be “any major economic crises underway right this moment,” but that doesn’t mean we’re not stuck in the middle of a “miserable” economic situation, writes New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

So dire is our current situation that even paltry economic news — like 1 percent growth in Spain’s depressed economy with 55 percent youth unemployment — is celebrated as a major triumph. “We’re doing worse than anyone could have imagined a few years ago,” Krugman notes in his Friday column, but people have started to accept terrible economic conditions as the new normal:

How did this happen? … I’d argue that an important source of failure was what I’ve taken to calling the timidity trap — the consistent tendency of policy makers who have the right ideas in principle to go for half-measures in practice, and the way this timidity ends up backfiring, politically and even economically.

In other words, Yeats had it right: the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

What this has meant in the United States and elsewhere, Krugman argues, is that the “good guys” who want to implement policies to get the unemployed back to work are too often caving to the pressure of the “pain caucuses” pushing sky-is-falling predictions about “runaway inflation and soaring interest rates” as a justification to do nothing.