In his Monday New York Times column, economist Paul Krugman discussed the most recent jobs report, which indicated that the country only generated 38,000 new jobs.
He noted that the Verizon strike can "explain part of the bad news," as well as the fact that "job growth is a noisy series, so you shouldn't make too much of one month's data," but acknowledged that it could be another sign of slowing growth.
As for whether it's a slowing that we should worry about, he answered "maybe," but only if a Republican wins the White House in November:
[T]he simplest, most effective answer to a downturn would be fiscal stimulus — preferably government spending on much-needed infrastructure, but maybe also temporary tax cuts for lower- and middle-income households, who would spend the money. Infrastructure spending makes especially good sense given the federal government’s incredibly low borrowing costs: The interest rate on inflation-protected bonds is barely above zero.
But unless the coming election delivers Democratic control of the House, which is unlikely, Republicans would almost surely block anything along those lines. Partly, this would reflect ideology: although right-wing economic predictions have been utterly wrong, there’s little indication that anyone in that camp has learned from the experience...
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