America Is Bankrupt (But Not the Way You Think)
Umair Haque
Harvard Business Review
Wednesday April 20, 2011

Healthcare, schools, police, tax breaks: which would you keep, slash, or cut? The axe has to swing, so where, if you were the lumberjack, would you aim it? It's the central, polarizing question in this age of austerity.

Or is it? Maybe relying on cuts to reboot prosperity is a bit like starting a diet to treat Alzheimer's: probably not going to work.

Consider an allegory: a household racking up debt not just because they have easy credit, but because they're a dysfunctional family to begin with. Meet the new Joneses: they're a little less Cleaver and little more Soprano...

Full story:
http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/04/cutting_the_budget.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness%2Fhaque+%28Umair+Haque+on+HBR.org%29