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January 7, 2010

Some Wishes for the Next Decade

William Galston, The New Republic

I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade

--W. H. Auden, “September 1, 1939”

It’s official: For the United States, the Naughts were a lost decade--zero job creation, declining household net worth, and the slowest GDP growth (by far) since the 1930s. And yet, Americans remain remarkably optimistic. In a just-released Gallup poll, 63 percent think the next 20 years will be good ones for the country—down from higher levels in 1990 and 2000, to be sure, but noticeably higher than the 51 percent recorded in 1980.

The question is whether our politics can redeem these hopes. We have survived, barely, a decade of evasion. What we need now is a decade of truth: politicians...

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Related Topics: economy

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