{"id":3308,"date":"2013-05-29T14:25:28","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T18:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/?p=3308"},"modified":"2013-05-29T14:25:28","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T18:25:28","slug":"wonkbook-if-austerity-is-so-bad-why-is-the-economy-doing-so-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/2013\/05\/wonkbook-if-austerity-is-so-bad-why-is-the-economy-doing-so-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonkbook: If austerity is so bad, why is the economy doing so well?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/chart_ws_index_sp500_201244145638.top_.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1571\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/chart_ws_index_sp500_201244145638.top_-300x176.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"176\" srcset=\"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/chart_ws_index_sp500_201244145638.top_-300x176.png 300w, http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/chart_ws_index_sp500_201244145638.top_-150x88.png 150w, http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/chart_ws_index_sp500_201244145638.top_-400x235.png 400w, http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/chart_ws_index_sp500_201244145638.top_.png 475w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The economy is holding up well in an age of austerity.\u00a0\u201cHousing prices rose faster over the past year than they have in the past seven, according to data out Tuesday. Consumer confidence hit its highest level in five years. The stock market rallied another 0.6 percent as measured by the Standard &amp; Poor\u2019s 500, leaving it just short of an all-time high reached last week. And the national retail price of gasoline fell for six days straight through Monday and is down 16 cents a gallon since late February\u2026It adds up to this reality: In a year when tax increases and spending cuts by the federal government were expected to bleed life out of the economy, the strengthening housing and financial markets are proving to be more powerful than acts of Congress.\u201d\u00a0Neil Irwin and Ylan Q. Mui in\u00a0The Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p>Why hasn\u2019t there been more of a drag?\u00a0\u201cAt the start of the year, it looked like 2013 would be a battle between positive and negative forces shaping the economy\u2026So far, the positives seem to be winning\u2026Meanwhile, the direct evidence that tighter fiscal policy is damaging growth is scarce, so far at least; study the internal details of major economic reports, and even if you squint you don\u2019t see a lot of concrete evidence of the squeeze.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE:<\/strong> \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/wonkblog\/wp\/2013\/05\/29\/wonkbook-if-austerity-is-so-bad-why-is-the-economy-doing-so-well\/\" target=\"_Blank\">Wonkbook: If austerity is so bad, why is the economy doing so well?<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The economy is holding up well in an age of austerity.\u00a0\u201cHousing prices rose faster over the past year than they have in the past seven, according to data out Tuesday. Consumer confidence hit its highest level in five years. The stock market rallied another 0.6 percent as measured by the Standard &amp; Poor\u2019s 500, leaving&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,22],"tags":[893,537,1694],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3309,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308\/revisions\/3309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}