Robert Samuelson is an Idiot

I don't like using strong words, but you've really got to have a screw loose if you're writing for a major newspaper (in his case, the Washington Post), and you can't do basic math.  Samuelson tells us that the US should be more like Latvia.  Which instituted sharp cuts, avoided devaluing its currency and... has unemployment at 17 percent.  Yeah, it was over 20% at one point.  But the IMF's projections go up to 2016... when they still expect Latvia to have double-digit unemployment.  That's not an "admirable" record.  That's horrible.  By contrast, Iceland (which probably had an even bigger output gap) let itself default and... never had unemployment anywhere near that level.  But "defending your currency" is some kind of badge of honor to some people, so they don't realize how absurd their "arguments" look to anyone who doesn't start with the conclusion, "Whatever results come from budget cuts must be good."