Don't Hold Out Any Hope for Obama's "Centrist" Economic Advisors

On NPR yesterday, there was a long interview of a reporter who is an expert on Obama's economic team. He said that although" centrists" like Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, are now in the driver's seat, these centrists have all moved significantly to the left.

According to this reporter, all of these advisors, centrist or otherwise, believe that Hoover's effort to balance the budget prolonged the depression. Thus, in order to avoid repeating this mistake, they agree on the need to"stimulate" the economy through massive government spending.

The centrists don't have a very good understanding of history. Hoover's concern about a balanced budget was largely rhetorical. From the beginning, he was ramping up government spending in agriculture and other areas as well as deficits.