Intro Econ and Why the Recovery Is Weak

Robert Samuelson used his column this week to note my friend Josh Biven's piece on the reason for the weak recovery. Biven puts the blame on insufficient government spending, noting that government spending per capita has been much weaker in this recovery than in prior recoveries. Samuelson says Biven could be right but then argues that maybe there is another explanation.

Samuelson offers the possibility that higher government spending in past downturns may have been the result of more rapid...