We were puzzled by the CT Mirror story, "State projects could play key role in accelerating economic recovery in 2012," because it put forth a rather inane concept that a state could accelerate economic growth by taking money out of one pocket and putting it into another pocket. Since the State must balance its budget, all spending must be funded by increased spending or increased borrowing. And since borrowing must be paid back, and with interest, taxes will go up to fund that. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a legitimate economic theory.
The story was based on a report, "Outperforming the Nation: Is it Sustainable?" by CCEA, the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis. We strive to be civil in this column, but there's no way to be polite about this report. The writing is awful. It's worse than awful.
The title page states, "This CCEA Outlook explores policies for ensuring the State of Connecticut’s recovery continues to outpace the Nation’s." There is this sentence, "Though still early in development of the Biosciences Connecticut complex, the major research building that will house Jackson Laboratories on the Farmington campus, and construction of the New Britain-Hartford busway, each will clearly strengthen the state’s economic performance significantly, by nearly 1% in 2012 and 1.15% in 2013." Chart 3 is labeled, "Employment Growth Eschewing and Including Low Interest Rates." And on it goes.
Awful writing. Awful economics.
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