Tuesday, January 12, 2016

David Brooks, "The Brutalism of Ted Cruz": America in Better Economic Shape Than Any Other Major Nation?



In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Brutalism of Ted Cruz," David Brooks savages what he terms Cruz's "pagan brutalism." Along the way, Brooks also comes to the defense of the Obama administration:

"America is in better economic shape than any other major nation on earth."

Oh really? Unbeknownst to David, there are now countries with better credit ratings than the US. Moreover, my guess is that if the major credit rating countries were not concerned with being blamed for revealing that the emperor has no clothes, thereby potentially setting off worldwide economic chaos, America's credit rating might be pegged one or two levels lower.

But more to the point, consider America's debt-to-GDP ratio, which at some 103.8% is among the highest among developed countries, only better than that of Japan, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Belgium.

Brooks obviously does not shine in economics.

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