Obama's Cure Not Potent Enough for Economic Ills

Barack Obama's call for aggressive action on the economy hasn’t been backed up by a plan bold enough to do the job, Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times. Plunging levels of investment and consumer spending will leave a gap of around $2 trillion between what America produces and what it can sell—and Obama's plan only offers $775 billion to fill that hole.

Fear of debt could be staying Obama's hand, Krugman writes, as could political caution or simply a lack of "shovel-ready" public works projects. But whatever the reason, two huge gaps remain: "the gap between the economy’s potential and its likely performance, and the gap between Mr. Obama’s stern economic rhetoric and his somewhat disappointing economic plan." (More US economy stories.)