Obama’s Economic Mirage

Conn Carroll /

Dead on op-ed from Robert Samuelson today:

President Obama has made no secret of his vision for America’s 21st-century economy. We will lead the world in “green” technologies to stop global warming. Advancing medical breakthroughs will improve our well-being, control health spending and enable us to expand insurance coverage. These investments in energy and health care, as well as education, will revive the economy and create millions of well-paying new jobs for middle-class Americans.

It’s a dazzling rhetorical vista that excites the young and fits the country’s mood, which blames “capitalist greed” for the economic crisis. Obama promises communal goals and a more widely shared prosperity. The trouble is that it may not work as well in practice as it does in Obama’s speeches. (more…)