Lawrence Summers: Dysfunctional America. Know-nothing focus on deficit dragging US deeper into the Slough of Despond.

There is a chance future historians will see today’s crisis as the turning point when American democracy was to shown to be dysfunctional…[b]udget deficits are now a second-order problem…. Policies that indirectly address deficit issues by focusing on growth are sounder economically...If even half the energy that has been devoted over the past five years to “budget deals” were devoted instead to “growth strategies” we could enjoy sounder government finances and a restoration of the power of the American example.
---Source (HT DeLong); Vitus emphasis