"You know Bush's tax cut solution for the economy is useless when the apostles of Reagan's tax cuts declare it useless."

No, that proves nothing. It's an opinion.

"The real answer is simple. Rather than target stimulus spending randomly, pick spending that will translate directly into jobs in the US. Regular consumers may not target their spending, but the government can."

Translation: We shouldn't trust individuals, we need to centrally control the economy.

"No, that proves nothing. It's an opinion."

Nathan doesn't claim it proves anything, it's just an informal expression used to show the gravity of the situation and what effect his evidence has on the argument. No, technically we don't all "know" the tax cut is useless, but the point of all statements like this is not to be truly factual. It just so happens that saying "you know" in this context often does mark a slight exaggeration, and shouldn't be taken as a claim the following sentence is 100% true. Arguing over complete factuality is beside the point of the article, as well as irrelevant when everyday language usage is examined.

"Translation: We shouldn't trust individuals, we need to centrally control the economy."

This comes nowhere close to what Nathan said. He advocated targeted spending as opposed to just throwing money around "randomly." Spending money on mass transportation and health care is a far cry from a centrally controlled economy. This is the point indirectly supported by the quote and evidence Nathan provided. He also does not say individuals cannot be trusted. It just so happens that in this world and at this time, there are safer and more efficient places to put money if we truly wish to create more jobs.

Micah-- Don't kick David too hard. The point of Paul Craig Roberts piece and mine is not to "trust" individuals, in the sense that each individual will rationally buy lots of imports and therefore undermine any chance for recovery, while those same individuals will rationally act collectively to pump up spending on jobs in the US.

This is a standard collective action problem. It's why rational human beings repeatedly drive the economy into recession and depression and why you can't "trust" individuals to get us out of it. No reason to worship individuals, when democracy is all about trusting people to act collectively.

My apologies if I came off a bit harsh. My mother's taken up listening to right-wing talk radio the past couple days before Democracy Now comes on, so naturally I'm a bit irritable about overstatements here and there ;-).