Today's NY Times carries an editorial that warns the Obama Administration against sticking with the economic half-measures it continues to take since the meltdown of 2008. Here we are, heading into 2010 and the US economy is still dragged down by zombie banks, loaded up with bad mortgage paper, a lack of credit for small business, little regulation on the financial markets, continued high unemployment, and a growing political obsession with closing the budget deficit while the need for more stimulus looms large. The Times editors ask whether anyone has learned the lessons of the meltdown— and if the US will avoid the fate of the Japanese 'lost decade' of the 1990's.
There are few reasons to believe the political class in the US cares enough about the long-term health of our economy to take the hard steps necessary to restore real economic health to our system. Despite this, one hopes there are enough voices out there to keep discussion alive about actually fixing those banks that are still zombies, instituting some serious new regulatory barriers to prevent the next bubble, and putting our people back to work. We must get our priorities straight in the United States— or we'll be looking at another economic collapse in only a matter of time.
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