What a yoyo

Over at MaxSpeak, Jared Bernstein coins a new term for the Bush economic policies -- "YOYO economics."

In other words, this is an economy that looks pretty good until you take a closer look at the people in it.

This disconnect between productivity and living standards is one of today’s most important, and most unsettling, economic dynamics. It’s obviously not the only salient problem we face—the extent of our fiscal and international indebtedness is also worthy of our attention. But I see these all of a package.

It’s a package tied up with a YOYO. That’s the acronym for “you’re on your own,” which over the past few decades has become a disturbing and destructive thematic embedded in our economic policy.

Under YOYO, the best way to meet the challenges we face, from inequality to health care to globalization, is a tax cut leavened with a private account. Market forces are the solution to whatever ails us, and for the YOYOs, the point of public policy is to turn up the market wattage. If you can’t take the heat, go to France.