You hear occasionally that the splits in the left-of-center economic community are not nearly so deep or divisive as they were in the Clinton-era. Larry Summers now speaks of health reform and the costs of globalization, while Bob Kuttner suggests that global trade is a rather done deal and more attention should be paid to global finance. But today's joint op-ed pairing Robert Rubin and EPI's Jared Bernstein is the clearest, and most important, statement of common purpose we've seen. Things get a bit vague when they veer into trade and health care, but what you can see, at least in the short-term, is an incredible level of consensus on large scale stimulus targeted at infrastructure investment. And this sort of elite unanimity matters, as all manner of wavering congressfolk will go to their chosen sage and get the same answer, rather than being divided by slightly esoteric, intra-wonk rivalries.
