The marriage of heaven and hell

There may be less disagreement among progressive economic thinkers than I thought. This, from a oped in the Times from Robert Rubin and progressive economist Jared Bernstein:

With the current financial crisis, our joint view is that for the short term, our economy needs a large fiscal stimulus that generates substantial economic demand.

We also jointly believe that fiscal stimulus must be married to a commitment to re-establishing sound fiscal conditions with a multi-year program that includes room for critical public investment, once the economy is back on a healthy track. […]

I'm okay if stabilization takes place at the same time with infrastructure investment. I'm not okay if we're told by putative progressives that infrastructure investment has to wait for some halcyon day in the future when the markets are settled again.

And I'm moved by their words in support of the need for strong unions to counter the influence of capital and to make sure the rest of us get our fair share of the wealth of the nation:

Many years ago, the economist John Kenneth Galbraith argued that collective bargaining was necessary so workers had the countervailing force they needed to bargain for their fair share of the growth they’re helping produce. To re-establish that force, workers should be allowed to choose to be unionized or not.

... especially coming from Bob Rubin, who I think has done a lot of damage to the labor movement in this country through his fetishism of free trade and Wall Street. But as with Colin Powell, I'm willing to give people the opportunity to make amends.

Hat tip: Yglesias