From Yahoo & James Galbraith:

A rising deficit “played a constructive role” in stabilizing the economy and was “inevitable” after the private sector collapse last year, he says. “We absolutely had to have government playing that role constructively, energetically, and on a sustained basis.” Those who say a sharp decrease in government spending (or higher taxes) would resolve or materially reduce the deficit simply don’t understand the mechanics of what created the deficit in the first place, Galbraith says: In sum, the credit crisis caused a collapse in government revenue (i.e. lower tax receipts) and a simultaneous rise in government expenditures for unemployment benefits, and other “automatic stabilizers,” the professor explains. Either a big cut in spending or big tax hike would not solve the deficit because “the private sector would collapse further,” he says.

That’s not a pleasant thought. The video:

More from the professor:

“If the government is no longer providing the impetus for economic stabilization, where is it going to come from?” That’s the question University of Texas professor James Galbraith asks of those advocating for the government to reduce spending and start eliminating programs supporting various parts of the economy. “I’m in favor of thinking about exit strategies [but] I’m not in favor of implementing them,” Galbraith says. “It’s way, way too early. Government spending - that is absolutely the reason why this has not turned into the [second] great depression.” As with his views on Wall Street reform, Galbraith believes we need to do more to revive the economy than just revert to the status quo. “What’s the strategic direction of economic growth going forward?,” he asks. Answering his own question, Galbraith says the U.S. “could use a decade of public capital investment to rebuilt common infrastructure.” Furthermore, we need to “mobilize and direct resources” to tackle the twin challenges of energy independence and global climate change, he says.

How come I can watch the Discovery Channel and see that over millions of years the polar ice caps have come and gone and that oceans covered Kansas at one time, but some how we humans are going to stop/delay/whatever “global warming”? One viewing of the Discovery Channel sure seems to say the earth will go as the earth will go and we will all be gone some day! So in the short term knock off the baloney that building new roads or creating “green” jobs will do anything except create a bigger welfare state!