looking backwards

I'm a big fan of blogs by popular economists (Tyler Cowen, Krugman, Dean Baker) and I rely on them for better information than I find in the morning newspaper on topics as diverse as inflation, globalization and sports. Despite frequent ideological and methodological differences, their core beliefs are often similar. Contrary to the idea of the "dismal science" nearly all of these academic economists are resolutely optimistic, growth oriented and convinced that the way forward is always, well, forward. Very rarely do they discuss the possibility of horrifically regressive trends in culture and economy. While the term "creative destruction" isn't brought up much, economists focus on long term trends that verify the grow and expand posture. Long term unemployment, from the perspective of most researchers, is a condition that is measured in months, with an upper bound of two years for extreme circumstances. Very few discuss the chilling possibility of real long-term unemployment and underemployment that can last decades or generations. Nor do they spend too much time on the subject of complete social and physical breakdown--leaving descriptions of those conditions to the movie industry (See: Road Warrior, The).

The devastation above was financed by deficit spending.