ROBERT OKSNER Winter Park, Fla., Aug. 10, 2011 Fear-inspired hyperbole about the so-called "debt crisis" and "explosion of government spending" has twisted the public discourse about fiscal policy.
As Cora Kaplan observed 15 years ago, the discourse of fiscal responsibility in both the US and UK has long had disability in its sights as an intolerable economic burden on "normal" citizenry.
That most of these same folks wanted to do so last year, under even more dire circumstances than we now face, is just another reminder of the bizarre schizophrenia that characterizes our national discourse about fiscal matters.
"While some Tea Party candidates struggled individually," Mr. Winston concluded, "the movement's focus on fiscal conservatism impacted the political discourse on the issues that eventually decided the election".
So even though we've known the deadline was approaching, it wasn't until after the election that the fiscal cliff narrative took over the media discourse.
She often discards subtlety in public discourse and thus spoke of the "fiscal starvation" faced by poor students and how the board's plans would destabilize, even destroy, poor neighborhoods.
Some readers have asked why, given my scornful discussions of the "confidence fairy" story about fiscal austerity (will that be my lasting contribution to economic discourse?), I'm willing to take seriously the idea that ECB rate hikes had a huge impact via expectations.
We are not and will not be defined by ideological special interests who would like to eliminate discourse that leads to economic vitality, jobs and fiscal stability for the states.
Some background: For the past year and a half, policy discourse in both Europe and the United States has been dominated by calls for fiscal austerity.
Why isn't public discourse focusing on the actual effects on people's lives of the disastrous let-them-eat-dirt fiscal policies?
