"The Long and Short of It"

Travel day today, but here's something:

The Long and Short of It, by Mark Thoma, CIF, UK Guardian: President Barack Obama's State of the Union-style speech on Tuesday night presented a mixture of economic policies. Some, such as "extended unemployment benefits and continued healthcare coverage to help ... weather this storm", are devoted to short-run issues related to the economic downturn. Others, such as polices to "address the crushing cost of healthcare" and investments in "technologies like wind power and solar power, advanced biofuels, clean coal and more efficient cars and trucks", are devoted to longer-run structural issues that we need to resolve. [...continue reading...]