KRUGMAN: We Don’t Need No Education - 'Republicans Bash Europe-While Wanting Us To EMULATE Europe'

[kpete]

OP-ED COLUMNIST
We Don’t Need No Education
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: June 14, 2012

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Conservatives would have you believe that our disappointing economic performance has somehow been caused by excessive government spending, which crowds out private job creation. But the reality is that private-sector job growth has more or less matched the recoveries from the last two recessions; the big difference this time is an unprecedented fall in public employment, which is now about 1.4 million jobs less than it would be if it had grown as fast as it did under President George W. Bush.

And, if we had those extra jobs, the unemployment rate would be much lower than it is — something like 7.3 percent instead of 8.2 percent. It sure looks as if cutting government when the economy is deeply depressed hurts rather than helps the American people.

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Actually, it’s kind of ironic. While Republicans love to engage in Europe-bashing, they’re actually the ones who want us to emulate European-style austerity and experience a European-style depression.

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Needless to say, this bodes ill if Mr. Romney wins in November. For all indications are that his idea of smart policy is to double down on the very spending cuts that have hobbled recovery here and sent Europe into an economic and political tailspin.

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the rest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/opinion/krugman-we-dont-need-no-education.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120615

[longship]

1. Worth a click through

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