In pursuit of an economic recovery,
President Obama has argued that we must transition from an "era of
borrow-and-spend to one where we save and invest." It is an appealing
concept, especially as the disappearance of surplus assets and historic
levels of debt helped transform a garden-variety business cycle
recession into a historic collapse.
But how does the saving and investing square with high levels of government borrowing and spending to stimulate the economy,
protect those thrown out of work, and prop up consumer demand?