"Elections have consequences". C'est la satisfaction que Krugman tire des semaines qui viennent de passer ; il avait exprimé son mécontentement il y a un mois, mais reconnait aujourd'hui que le nouveau budget voulu par le président Obama marque une rupture avec la politique des trente dernières années :
"(...) Fears that Mr. Obama would sacrifice progressive priorities in his budget plans (...) have now been banished. For this budget allocates $634 billion over the next decade for health reform. That’s not enough to pay for universal coverage, but it’s an impressive start. And Mr. Obama plans to pay for health reform, not just with higher taxes on the affluent, but by putting a halt to the creeping privatization of Medicare, eliminating overpayments to insurance companies."
S'il y voit une source d'inquiétude, c'est dans la perspective d'un ratio endettement/PIB qui atteindra à terme les 60%, taux qu'il sait conforme aux standards internationaux, mais dont il estime qu'il laisse une marge de manoeuvre réduite.
"According to the Obama administration’s budget projections, the ratio of federal debt to G.D.P., a widely used measure of the government’s financial position, will soar over the next few years, then more or less stabilize. But this stability will be achieved at a debt-to-G.D.P. ratio of around 60 percent. That wouldn’t be an extremely high debt level by international standards, but it would be the deepest in debt America has been since the years immediately following World War II. And it would leave us with considerably reduced room for maneuver if another crisis comes along."
Obama pourra toujours prendre des cours de gestion de la situation auprès de l'administration française ...
