In the often Orwellian world of government policy pronouncements, the Obama economic team is trying for new ground, with “self-sustaining” recovery, understood at least by the dictionary to mean “maintaining itself by independent effort,” now understood, according to Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, as requiring extensive government support and intervention.
In an op-ed published June 23 in The Wall Street Journal, the two most senior Administration economic officials call on their G-20 colleagues to maintain government spending, establish a global framework for financial regulation, and to make efforts in agricultural development, food security, and to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. According to Geithner and Summers, concerted action by G-20 governments is “the only effective way to confront the challenges that lie ahead.” It seems they don’t view the recovery as so “self-sustaining” after all.
