Layoffs by governments at local level hardly help job recovery and investment in education is falling by the way

Layoffs at the local level, by local administrations, we could say, by local government, are so numerous that we could post them on a separated blog. This hardly helps job recovery. Moreover, investment in education is falling by the way. Krugman thinks it is bad politics and we agree.

…If it weren’t for this destructive fiscal austerity, our unemployment rate would almost certainly be lower now than it was at a comparable stage of the “Morning in America” recovery during the Reagan era.

Notice that I said “government in America,” not “the federal government.” The federal government has been pursuing what amount to contractionary policies as the last vestiges of the Obama stimulus fade out, but the big cuts have come at the state and local level. These state and local cuts have led to a sharp fall in both government employment and government spending on goods and services, exerting a powerful drag on the economy as a whole.

Read More @:

Source: nytimes.com

via States of Depression – NYTimes.com.