South By North Strategies, Ltd.

The Economist asks why federal policymakers are ignoring the economic drag caused by collapsing state budgets.

State legislatures are looking a combined budget gaps worth more than the size of the House jobs legislation, and senators busy themselves stripping aid to states from their bill. Mr [Paul] Krugman has written that what the euro zone needs is tighter fiscal integration to offset the burdens imposed by a uniform monetary policy. But if America is any indication, tighter fiscal integration doesn’t mean a thing if the people running the show at the federal level are short-sighted, provincial, and apt to choose grandstanding over good policy.