Cruel Summer

The city is crowded
My friends are away and I'm on my own
It's too hot to handle
So I got to get up and go
--Bananarama

After announcing her resignation last month, Chief Economic Advisor Christina Romer gave her exit speech last week. Dr Romer expressed disappointment that the policies enacted on her watch have not significantly reduced economic issues.

Of course, her borrow and spend approach, straight out of the Keynes textbook, was destined to fail out of the gate. Debt and spending problems cannot be solved by more of the same.

Almost as laughable as these policies is the tone of the WP columnist who covered the Romer event, which seems to imply that there is an interventionist policy that would work and that Dr Romer was 'wrong'--i.e., she merely failed to choose the correct one.

One other thing about the outgoing CEA's remarks. Dr Romer suggested that economists 'don't fully understand' why things happened the way they did in this downturn.

It seems she and her card carrying economist friends may need to view the world thru a different lens.