"This is going to be terrible."

Although I may not be exercised over the mid-term elections (see what I had to say yesterday), others are not so resigned (And yes, I've gotten to the point that I'm so fed up with the brainless electorate and the venal, lying pols that I just cannot get worked up about it anymore. If this is the measure of my discontent and despair, so be it.) Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes that the impending GOP takeover of the House will be catastrophic for the country. "This is going to be terrible," he writes. "In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness.

I cannot say that I disagree with him at all. The economic woes besetting the country now will be as nothing compared to the chaos that is going to ensue when this whole sucker goes down, as our esteemed former president so eloquently put it.
Krugman again:

The economy, weighed down by the debt that households ran up during the Bush-era bubble, is in dire straits; deflation, not inflation, is the clear and present danger. And it’s not at all clear that the Fed has the tools to head off this danger. Right now we very much need active policies on the part of the federal government to get us out of our economic trap.

But we won’t get those policies if Republicans control the House. In fact, if they get their way, we’ll get the worst of both worlds: They’ll refuse to do anything to boost the economy now, claiming to be worried about the deficit, while simultaneously increasing long-run deficits with irresponsible tax cuts — cuts they have already announced won’t have to be offset with spending cuts.

So if the elections go as expected next week, here’s my advice: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Related articles

• Krugman: Only Player Out There Who Can Get This Economy Moving is the Government (crooksandliars.com)
• Choose Your NYT Pundit (theatlantic.com)
• Krugman's prophecy of doom (economist.com)