What if the economy can’t be fixed?

Who knows where the debt mess will lead? I don’t think that’s knowable, which is why there may not be much that can be done to fix things until we see the actual debacle unfold. And even then, I’m not so sure that there’s a magic answer.

I watched the president’s news conference Tuesday night and came away once more impressed by the commander-in-chief’s rhetorical ability.
If you’re an Obama fan, you’ll interpret my use of the word “rhetorical” as meaning “skill in the effective use of speech,” as Merriam-Webster puts it. If you’re not a fan, you’re thinking of the other dictionary definition — insincere or grandiloquent language.
Just as Mr. Obama’s skill with words can be viewed through two prisms, his economic program can be examined from many perspectives.
Is he extending government power too far? Not far enough? Is the budget too big or too small? Should we continue to bail out financial institutions or let them fail?
I wish I knew the answers, but I have a feeling no one does. Unfortunately, we’ve come to expect that there’s an answer for every problem, and that the government, especially the president, should have those answers.
Both the government and the press foster the illusion. The government, of course, benefits by grabbing power to get the job done — even if no one knows what the job is, or how to do it. The Washington press corps feeds off the illusion, too, as it helps inflate journalists’ sense of importance and the egos of those they cover.
Especially given the current mess, I have a feeling that the nation’s economic problems are too complex to lend themselves to easy solutions. The biggest problem, or at least what I think is the biggest problem, is that we’re up to our eyeballs in debt.
In addition to the gazillions the federal government owes, states and municipalities are swimming in red ink. Corporations — especially those that have been pillaged by private-equity concerns — are staggering under their own debt load.
And don’t ask about individuals with their under-water mortgages, ballooning credit card balances and college loans that won’t be paid off until it’s time to collect whatever is left of Social Security.
Will fixing the banks solve the debt problem?
Maybe, maybe not.
And who knows where the debt mess will lead? I don’t think that’s knowable, which is why there may not be much that can be done to fix things until we see the actual debacle unfold. And even then, I’m not so sure that there’s a magic answer. Remember, it took World War II to change the course of the Depression and no one ever thought of Pearl Harbor as the answer.
It looks like we’re unwilling to kick the big-dollar “Big Answer” habit. And it’s unlikely that the popular mood will let us return to the faux laissez-faire of the recent past, whose motto was “don’t touch my corporate subsidy, but if you help the average schnook, that’s socialism.”
So that leaves us with what you might call the rhetorical approach.
For that, we need a leader who speaks persuasively, inspires confidence and makes us feel better, even if all the activity and massive spending do very little or even delay real recovery. Perhaps, as a nation, we made the right choice in November.