Secret Deficit Lovers
By Paul Krugman
What if they balanced the budget and nobody knew or cared?
O.K., the federal budget hasnt actually been balanced. But the Congressional Budget Office has tallied up the totals for fiscal 2014, which ran through the end of September, and reports that the deficit plunge of the past several years continues. You still hear politicians ranting about trillion dollar deficits, but last years deficit was less than half-a-trillion dollars or, a more meaningful number, just 2.8 percent of G.D.P. and its still falling.
So where are the ticker-tape parades? For that matter, where are the front-page news reports? After all, talk about the evils of deficits and the grave fiscal danger facing America dominated Washington for years. Shouldnt we be making a big deal of the fact that the alleged crisis is over?
Well, we arent, and once you understand why, you also understand what fiscal hysteria was really about.
First, ordinary Americans arent celebrating the deficits decline because they dont know about it.
more
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/opinion/paul-krugman-secret-deficit-lovers.html