Math is hard

(hat tip: Huck)

UPDATE: Paul Krugman shows that foresight is harder:

[The Recession of 2001] was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this recession the Fed needs* more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.

Judging by Mr. Greenspan's remarkably cheerful recent testimony, he still thinks he can pull that off...

And pull it off he did, proving that even in the rare case that government economists accomplish what they set out to do - in this case, purposely create a housing bubble and soaring household spending - the results are worse than if they had done nothing at all.

Which is why they should do nothing at all.

* note the use of the present tense here. This editorial was written in 2002.