Alan Auerbach Says Recession Leads to Painful Choices

The Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2009 by Mark Whitehouse
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124509802628416217.html#printMode

With both the U.S. and the U.K. still digging their way out of recession, it’s too early to say exactly what choices they’ll make…. It includes cutting investment in infrastructure such as new hospitals, increasing retirement ages, rationing medical services, accepting long-term boosts in tax rates—and, on a smaller scale, figuring out how much the government should spend on matters of national pride such as the Olympics. “Are people going to be happy? No, but they have unrealistic expectations,” says Alan Auerbach, a professor and expert on fiscal policy.