Paul Krugman: Cheating Our Children

So, about that fiscal crisis — the one that would, any day now, turn us into Greece. Greece, I tell
you: Never mind.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a remarkable change of position among the deficit scolds
who have dominated economic policy debate for more than three years. It’s as if someone sent out
a memo saying that the Chicken Little act, with its repeated warnings of a U.S. debt crisis that
keeps not happening, has outlived its usefulness. Suddenly, the argument has changed: It’s not
about the crisis next month; it’s about the long run, about not cheating our children. The deficit,
we’re told, is really a moral issue.