Opinion

Ezra Klein: We've Stabilized Into Crisis

Washington doesn't control the economy.

The Dow Jones responded to the debt-ceiling deal by collapsing, the latest sign that Washington doesn't control the economy, or even understand it very well, says Ezra Klein, the Washington Post blogger (and contributor to Newsweek and The Daily Beast.) “A dramatic gap has opened between the economy as Washington sees it—and wants to intervene in it—and the economy that exists,” he writes. The economy is more stable now than two years ago, but unemployment is still high and growth is low, hindered by global commodity prices, consumer deleveraging, flagging demand, and other forces that don't make it into the national debate. “Rather than recovering from the crisis, it is almost as if we have settled into it.”