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ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
We are passing through something more than a period of disappointing economic growth and increasing political polarization. What’s happening is more powerful: the collapse of “entitlement.”
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
There is something profoundly timid about President Barack Obama’s proposed $3.778 trillion budget for 2014. Stripped of boasts about “investments” for the future and a responsible “balance” between deficit reduction and economic growth, the budget is a status-quo document. It lets existing trends and policies run their course, meaning that Obama would allow higher spending on the elderly to overwhelm most other government programs. This is not “liberal” or “conservative” so much as politically expedient and lazy.
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
We live in a post-industrial age, defined more by Google than by General Motors. The term “post-industrial society” was first popularized by the sociologist Daniel Bell (1919-2011) in a 1973 book, and the change has generally been a boon. The transition from factory to office has raised living standards, curbed pollution and reduced the number of grueling, often-monotonous jobs. Yet, this largely beneficial transformation suffers in the popular imagination. The vast “service sector,” which now dominates the economy, is seen as inferior, low-paying and even frivolous because it produces nothing tangible.
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
The bailout of Cyprus – if it can be called that – bore all the trappings of Europe’s standard response to its economic crisis.
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
Is the recession over? Has the recovery started?
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
Logically, what happens in Cyprus should stay in Cyprus. With a population of just over 1 million and an economy that’s a mere 0.2 percent of the 17-nation eurozone, the country seems too small to matter on the world stage.
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
“The president is in the midst of a charm offensive.”
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
Where’s the stock market going? Has a bull market started? Or are we on the cusp of a new bubble?
WASHINGTON — There is something about Amtrak – perhaps the romance of railroads or the promise of relieving traffic congestion and economizing on oil and greenhouse gas emissions – that causes otherwise sensible people to lose contact with reality.
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
Are we creating a lost generation?
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
President Barack Obama and Democrats want more jobs. So do Republicans. Heck, everyone does. Yet, job creation is weak.
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
At the core of Washington’s exasperating budget debate lies a confusing disconnect. On the one hand, we’re urged to reduce huge and endless budget deficits, which are said to threaten a future financial crisis. The Congress-ional Budget Office’s latest projections – released this week – envision $7 trillion worth of deficits over the next decade, a figure that could, under plausible circumstances, exceed $9 trillion. On the other hand, we’re cautioned against doing too much deficit reduction too quickly because steep spending cuts or tax increases might undermine the weak economic recovery. In effect, we’re instructed both to reduce the deficits and not to reduce them.
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
The Washington Post reports that the odds are increasing – perhaps to the point of near certainty – that the so-called “sequester” will take effect March 1. This would be a pity. For nonbudget wonks, the sequester mandates about $1 trillion in govern-ment spending cuts over nine years, divided between defense and non-defense programs. These would be the wrong cuts, done in the wrong way. There’s a better approach.
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
There was a make-believe quality to President Barack Obama’s second inaugural address, as if all that’s required to solve serious problems are the intelligence to produce proper policies and the political grit to get them approved.
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
The “legacy thing” may be harder than Barack Obama imagines. Beginning his second term, Obama has a focused, though unstated, agenda: to achieve presidential greatness in the eyes of historians and Americans. In this, he will almost certainly fail. He is already a historic president as the first African American to be elected, but there is a chasm between being historic and being great.
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