Obama and the Economy

It's not really much of a surprise at this point that Paul Krugman deemed Barack Obama's economy speech inadequate, but it is worth pointing out that Krugman's take on this is a little idiosyncratic within the larger world of liberal economics specialists. The speech I read was definitely a critique-from-the-left of the Clinton administration record, accusing them of going too far in joining with the GOP to gut the regulatory apparatus that's necessary to make American capitalism work.

Which is all by way of throat-clearing to introduce Bob Kuttner's column on the subject; Bob was a populist before it was cool, and hasn't been hesitant to slam Obama in the past, but he loved the speech.

UPDATE: Jared Bernstein also stepsto Obama's defense.