Lost Decade?

Yesterday’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook NPR radio show featured a segment titled “A Lost Decade?” whereby several apparent policy junkies presented their outlook for the possibility of a Japanese-style “lost decade” here in the U.S. as well as their opinions on past policy and what must be done to avoid further economic weakness.

While interesting listening, this was a pretty disappointing segment given that all the guests appeared to be in the Keynesian camp, completely unable to acknowledge that the efforts by the Federal Reserve and Federal Government have not only been futile but have actually been hampering any chance of a real sustained recovery.

The only glimmer of truth to the entire hour were the two callers who, taken together, made the point that the U.S. has been slogging through major structural economic changes for over a decade already and that the topic should really be titled “A Lost Score?”