Of course people who actually understand the economy don’t think the deficit will be a problem for some time, and the only problem with the ‘fiscal cliff’ is that it will eventually lead to a recession, a la 1937.

You are correct, too many people in this country don’t understand how things work, and the media and politicians aren’t interested in actually explaining things, mostly because they don’t understand how things work.

Duncan keeps saying – people got no jobs, people got no money. Demand is in the tank, and the private sector isn’t going to hire until it needs to to meet the demand for their products.

Do you really think so? Of course there is no “cliff”; it’s a fabrication to serve the interests of the already-wealthy in their pursuit of, what else, more wealth. But the kinds of people who believe in a “fiscal cliff” have a motto something like this: “Fool me once… fool me again a month from now.” It’s not stupidity; it’s a baldfaced willingness to be fooled, rather the way Republicans believed their pollsters who told them that Rmoney was a sure winner on 11/6.

Some re-education may be necessary in economics. A lot more re-education requires a change in attitude that I don’t see forthcoming right away. Expect all of us to be badly burned before some of us comprehend the dangers of fire.