Krugman quoting Rubin quoting Mankiw

Okay, it's an obscure headline, but the NYT article isn't. Krugman, the Times' financial columnist, details a scholarly piece published over the weekend by Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary, which warns of an impending "crisis of confidence" in the American economy if Bush's profligate spending/unfair taxation policies aren't abandoned. Rubin, in turn, quotes a previous article by Gregory Mankiw, who's presently chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, to the same effect.

The synopsis of Krugman's essay is that, like other countries, notably Argentina, the US policies are headed toward such a disastrous climax--with no end in sight as Boomers begin to retire in four years--that other nations, as well as US citizens, will come to doubt the viability of the US economy, and when doubt sets in, look out. The effects of such loss of confidence in an economy as dominant as ours is unknown, but frightening--just as the effects of our present spending/income differential are unknown--and frightening.

Rubin's no left-wing nut, Krugman points out. As Clinton's Treasury Secretary he was Mr. Sharp-pencil, whose policies turned the economy around from its woeful state in the early 1990's.

If Rubin's worried, so should we be.