Mark Thoma lives on a different planet

Oregon Unemployment Rate

He channels the usual Krugman:

"This was supposed to be a new era, one where progressive ideas would dominate public policy, not an era where a false charge of "death panels" would dominate the public discourse, and certainly not an era where misrepresentations from the far right extreme would cause the public option to be dropped from the legislation."

No, we never expected the Thoma dream world. We expected our last experience to be repeated, the arrival of another Clinton (Bill) and smart government. Yes, we expected Thoma and Krugman pitch their utopia of a federal government delivering consumables; but the politicos always knew that ideal would fade against the realities.

The Oregon unemployment chart above is what expect from Thoma's utopian fantasy. In Thoma's fantasy, we have the Fed, Treasury and Citigroup insuring that government money funnels hundred million dollar paychecks to financial fat cats. DeLong, who worked in the Bill Clinton administration should know better.


Updating Oregon's Utopian fantasy:

Too much government interference is strangling Oregon's economy, say Kotkin and Watkins in their article on the California disease infecting Oregon..