Expansionary Contraction?

"I don't get it..."

What a good question...

OK, but how do you get from “stimulus doesn’t work” to a particularly unfortunate strain of the current policy debate: “the best way to stimulate job growth now is to aggressively cut gov’t spending.”

It flies in the face of logic that in an economy like ours that’s operating significantly below capacity—like with 20+ million un- and underemployed—that cutting spending would help.

I'm at a loss to understand how people with such a poor understanding of economics continue to make decisions for the largest economy on Earth.