I’d actually noticed this yesterday, perusing the Corner, where Larry Kudlow was arguing that now that a recession appears to be waiting just beyond the door to 2008, what we really need is… wait for it…

Tax cuts!

But not just tax cuts; we need the right kind of tax cuts - tax cuts for the rich, or to use Kudlow’s euphamism, for the “successful investor.” It’s the whole trickle-down thing; let the rich keep more of their dollars (well, OK, euros) and they’ll buy more yachts, translating into more money for those who build and clean yachts. Or something like that.

If the economy does tap out after the first of the year, though, it won’t be because there aren’t enough yacht-cleaning gigs around. It will be because the average consumer is himself tapped out, his credit cards maxed out, may be facing a big jump in mortgage payments. But as Krugman notes, when the answer to every economic question is tax cuts!, “it makes you wonder why we ever had taxes in the first place.”