Falling Into the Chasm - Krugman

This is what happens when you need to leap over an economic chasm — but either can’t or won’t jump far enough, so that you only get part of the way across.

If Democrats do as badly as expected in next week’s elections, pundits will rush to interpret the results as a referendum on ideology. President Obama moved too far to the left, most will say, even though his actual program — a health care plan very similar to past Republican proposals, a fiscal stimulus that consisted mainly of tax cuts, help for the unemployed and aid to hard-pressed states — was more conservative than his election platform.

A few commentators will point out, with much more justice, that Mr. Obama never made a full-throated case for progressive policies, that he consistently stepped on his own message, that he was so worried about making bankers nervous that he ended up ceding populist anger to the right.
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The resurgent Republicans have learned nothing from the economic crisis, except that doing everything they can to undermine Mr. Obama is a winning political strategy. Tax cuts and deregulation are still the alpha and omega of their economic vision.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/opinion/25krugman.html?th&emc=th

with "You can't cross a chasm in two jumps" I had not read this Krugman piece.

No idle meme-spreader I.

I believe the original phrase refers to the "leap of faith."

(It was written in a bible I received as a confirmation gift from my dad, which is why the phrase has always been memorable to me.)

progressive politics and the left in general.

"President Obama moved too far to the left, most will say, even though his actual program — a health care plan very similar to past Republican proposals, a fiscal stimulus that consisted mainly of tax cuts, help for the unemployed and aid to hard-pressed states — was more conservative than his election platform."

Obama has moved markedly to the right but still allows his detractors to call him a liberal, a leftest, a socialist, and a progressive. For the good of American politics he should stand on his hind legs and declare his Republicanism. He has repeatedly denounced the left but the media (all stripes) is too biased to report the reality.

how many trillions should Ben print to create 'prosperity'?

Krugman called for the housing bubble that contributed in large part to the imbalances in our economy, now he want more credit creation from thin air. Is this the Mad Economists version of 'turtles all the way down', just call it 'bubbles all the way up'?

Someone should ask Krugman if Mugabe created enough 'stimulus' in his economy.