Scoffers of the World Unite

The NYT editorial board asks why people are so glum. Despite high unemployment and record deficits, the economy is turning around. You almost have to be blind not to see it.

Well let's hope so. But there are still a few storm clouds on the horizon, including rising gasoline prices that could cause the recovery to stall in its tracks.

The editorial closes with this observation:

In 1982, Democrats scoffed at a surging stock market and thought a severe recession would last for a very long time. They were confident that the economy would doom Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984. All they had to do was make clear they offered a stark alternative to the failing policies of the incumbent.

Change a few words (Reagan to Obama, Democrats to Republicans, 1984 to 2012) and you have an accurate description of the current political climate. Could the Republicans be as wrong now as the Democrats were then?

The answer to that question is sure they could. But let's not pretend its only the economy Democrats will be blamed for. Nobody can seriously argue that the mamouth health care bill will be a help to the economy in the short term. It remains a stretch to believe that this new and expensive entitlement will be a help in the long term either.

But more interesting (and amusing) is the New York Times' chiding Democrats for scoffing at Reaganomics in 1982, when it was the New York Times editorial board itself leading the guffawing at how hopelessly stupid Reagan's economic policies were.

Check out the headline in this NYT editorial published on Nov. 19, 1982: "Requiem for Reaganomics." If you want to read it, you have to buy it. But it sure doesn't sound like the 1982 Times understood the politics and the economy of that time any better than they than they do today.