Here are today's major opinion and editorial columns.
WHEN AUSTERITY FAILS BY PAUL KRUGMANNEW YORK TIMESIf Greek banks collapse, that might well force Greece out of the euro area — and it’s all too easy to see how it could start financial dominoes falling across much of Europe. So what is the E.C.B. thinking? My guess is that it’s just not willing to face up to the failure of its fantasies. And if this sounds incredibly foolish, well, who ever said that wisdom rules the world?
A BUDGET WITHOUT CORE PURPOSES, TAXATION WITHOUT COMPASSION BY EDUARDO PORTERNEW YORK TIMES
President Obama is right to cast the negotiations with Congress over the budget in terms of our values: “It’s about the kind of future that we want. It’s about the kind of country that we believe in.” But perhaps he shouldn’t trust Americans’ generosity and compassion to simply carry the day on Capitol Hill. To build the America he extols he is going to have to fight for it.
WHO WILL PLAY STRAUSS-KHAN? BY ROSS DOUTHATNEW YORK TIMES
To most Americans, the tale of Dominique Strauss-Kahn probably seems like fodder for a “Law and Order” episode. ... He’s just another high-profile man behaving badly, part Arnold Schwarzenegger and part Ben Roethlisberger and more obscure than both. ... The only question is how the movie ends. Maybe Strauss-Kahn will be cleared in court; maybe the European project can be saved. But a drama that involves so much hubris seems likely to finish in tragedy instead.
CHILLING ECHOES FROM SEPT. 11 EDITORIALNEW YORK TIMES
In New York, where the scars of 9/11 remain raw, there is not yet a fully compatible system among police officers, firefighters and Port Authority forces, but officials insist they are making progress. How many warnings does Congress need? How many more people will be endangered because of bureaucratic wrangling or political inertia?
GOLDEN STATE BLUES BY GEORGE WILLWASHINGTON POST
The most muscular pleaders are the public employees unions. In 1978, Brown conferred on government employees the right to unionize and bargain collectively. In 2010, their unions fueled the campaign that restored him to the governor’s office. Thus does the liberal merry-go-round spin.
REPUBLICANS AND MEDISCARE EDITORIALWALL STREET JOURNAL
The reality is that Medicare "as we know it" will change because it must. The issue is how it will change, and, leaving aside this or that detail, the only alternatives are Mr. Ryan's proposal to introduce market competition or Mr. Obama's plan for ever-tightening government controls on prices and care. Republicans who think they can dodge this choice are only guaranteeing that Mr. Obama will prevail.