“THE ECONOMY IS WORSE THAN YOU THINK” (June 10, 2011)

Thus the title of Martin Feldstein’s article in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal today. Well, count me out. The title is very much to my liking, but the rest of the article leaves me unimpressed. Feldstein blames Barack Obama for everything under the sun, including the humongous public debt incurred by George Bush. He does not blame the Wall Street for a single thing. Nor the kind of capitalism he had helped into existence as Ronald Reagan’s chief economic adviser. Unbridled capitalism, that is. He still believes in it, it goes without saying. Returning to the title, I would suggest a slight revision, which would make it still more to my liking: “Capitalism is Worse than You Think.” Harvard economists like Feldstein cannot even think through such a wonderful title. To be fair to Harvard, include here the economists from all the top universities in the States.