Economists are as bad as the politicians

DENVER (MarketWatch) — Let’s get this straight: Economists think our government should raise taxes and cut spending. They think the Federal Reserve should crank back its free-money policies. They think all of this should happen, oh, um, ah, eventually.

And then they think: Gosh darn it. Do you know what’s holding back our economic recovery? Uncertainty in Washington. We sure wish we knew when they were going to do something.

Reuters

The U.S. Federal Reserve building.

The National Association for Business Economics, or NABE, surveyed 236 of its members and found:

“There is overwhelming support among NABE members for a balanced approach to eventual fiscal tightening,” reads the survey, released Monday. “The vast majority of panelists feels that uncertainty about fiscal policy is holding back the pace of economic recovery.”

This is an organization that bills itself as “the premier professional association for business economists and others who use economics in the workplace.” It boasts that since 1959, it has attracted the most prominent figures in economics, business and academia.

These are our thinkers. And you can bet that if they have drunk uncles, they are thinking: Yeah, he should quit drinking, I overwhelmingly support that eventually, but not now because he is still buying the rounds.

We have had two major wars, skyrocketing health-care costs, a recession and four years of historically high unemployment. The U.S. government borrows 40 cents of every dollar it spends. Digits on the National Debt Clock are spinning wildly after hitting the $16 trillion mark. And “eventual” spending cuts and tax increases is the best idea our economists have?