Monday, September 15, 2008

To Alan, Thanks...But No Thanks

Last Friday, Alan Greenspan basically shot down the McCain economic plan. As Obama advisor Jason Furman (pdf) puts it:

On Friday, September 12, Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Bloomberg News that John McCain should not move forward with his $3.4 trillion in new tax cuts unless he can show how to pay for them. In answer to a question about whether the nation could “afford a tax cut of that magnitude” Greenspan said “unless we cut spending, no.” Greenspan went on to say “I’m not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money.” We agree.


I wanted to write about this over the weekend but I didn't want to make myself sick recounting the story of how Greenspan played a monumental role in providing political cover for the disastrous Bush Administation tax cuts. (Anyone remember "triggers"?)

For the short version read Krugman's column from almost a year ago today. His bottom line on Alan's new found wisdom just needs to be iterated by one year:

"Well, I’m sorry, but that criticism comes six years late and a trillion dollars short."

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