The Weekend Link (6/26 - 6/28)

Economist Paul Krugman lashes out against what he calls the "Great Ignorance" that is pervading his profession, that is, "the 'rediscovery' of old fallacies about deficit spending and interest rates, presented as if they were deep insights..." Krugman also links to a short piece he wrote "a long time ago" which outlines the crux of "real macroeconomics--the tradition that runs through Keynes and Hicks..."

Robert H. Frank, writing in The American Prospect, details what a "post-consumer prosperity" might look like.

Matthew Yglesias, writing for The American Prospect, argues that tax increases, even on the middle class, will be required to finance a long-term progressive agenda, despite Obama's campaign pledges to not raise taxes on the bottom 95 percentile.

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic, argues that the public health insurance plan is a key element of reform, but not the only one. And here's a New Republic editorial making the case for the public plan.

Via Paul Krugman's blog, here's a look at average global temperatures since 1880. And speaking of climate change legislation, here is some analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill from Conor Clarke, projecting the bill's impact on the economy, and from The Economist magazine, describing the bill as "a bundle of compromises."

Nobel Laureate and Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz outlines the case for a global recovery to the current recession, arguing that short-sighted and uncoordinated policy is not suitable for the "most serious global downturn...of the post-Word War II era."

And we have much analysis of the growing national debt, structural deficits, and future fiscal prospects: Brad DeLong argues that policy in 2009-2010 should continue to focus on recession-fighting, only to give way to an agenda addressing the structural balance in 2011-2012. Ed Luce, writing for the Financial Times, disagrees, arguing that deficit reduction may become a top political priority with the 2010 mid-term elections looming. The Brookings Institute provides a thorough analysis of both the short-term and long-term outlooks (for summary, click here; for longer paper, click here). And via Brad DeLong, here are some charts offering historical perspective on the debt-to-GDP ratio. And finally, lest we forget, here's how we got here since 2001: two recessions, huge tax cuts, and increased military/war expenditure.