Not altogether encouraging

I'm not given to linking, for laziness mainly, or commenting on current affairs (surface froth), but there is something in this Krugman column that seems, feels, to capture something of this moment. Our political system in the West truly is becoming more dysfunctional, more decadent. And, yes, structural deficit spending is one of the symptoms (one that can be, btw, also addressed by tax rises and not just cuts), but at this particular moment it does make much sense to make large scale public investments (that would not for the most part become structural and permanent). Perhaps we are too far out of balance to be able to do the rational, the sensible thing. That's always an indication of systemic failure. Which really would not be very encouraging. Rather alarming, unsettled times to my mind, these.