Krueger in Washington

I was singularly unimpressed with the contributions Alan Krueger was described as making to President Obama’s economic “policy” (cover story, May 14). Providing statistics and probabilities with no connection to causality appeared to be the M.O. of what was deemed to be economic analysis. Schmoozing with Biden and Bono was apparently more significant than even paying lip service to free-market principles.

To suggest that the economy is “pretty resilient” given all that was thrown at it (European debt crisis, BP oil spill, the flu virus, the tsunami) is the height of willful blindness. While it may be true that a growing income inequality is “the heaviest drag on growth,” this administration’s policies are the most significant cause of this inequality, as well as a cause of the shrinking middle class.

Crony capitalism, favoring the large banks, strangulating regulation, with which only large corporations can deal, additional onerous taxation primarily from Obamacare, and the seemingly intentional growth of a dependent population segment all contribute to a “wealth polarity” and the shrinkage of the middle class — not to mention the blocking of the Keystone pipeline.

I would have expected Mr. Krueger to have noted some of these things.