Disaster Progressivism

From the Washington Post:

"Everyone is having these huge sales, and consumers know if they wait longer, the chances of them not having a good selection is fairly small and the chances are that the prices will be lower," said Charles McMillion, an economist who runs MBG Information Services. "So why buy today? This is exactly why economists are always scared to death of deflation."

and from the Wall Street Journal "Fed’s Lacker Expresses More Concerns About Inflation Than Deflation"

I may have to go with deflation simply because the guy's name is McMillion. Seriously, Lacker, McMillion, Kashkari, this crisis has the best names, we are certainly living in interesting times, and it appears that Rahm Emanuel has read The Shock Doctrine:

He said the current economic crisis offers opportunities for change that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible. “Never let a serious crisis go to waste,” he said.

Now I actually agree with the idea of going "long and deep", and not just because it sounds dirty. We have been engaged in an ideological civil war in this country since 1994 and we need to end it.

But November 4th wasn't an ending, it was a turning point. If the election of Barack Obama was Gettysburg, we still have a long, hard slog to Appomattox. And winning isn't the only challenge. Many idiots have won wars (ahem, mission accomplished) the bigger challenge is achieving victory in such a way that you can also win the peace. My nightmare scenario right now, and Waxman's chairmanship just feeds this, is scorched earth progressivism for two years and then a Reaganesque Reconstruction.