His latest column ends,

The reason that we aren’t getting more expansionary macro policy is fundamental: a lack of trust. It’s not an easy problem to fix, but the place to start is by recognizing it.

Two possibilities.

1. He is being Straussian. What he cannot say in public is that the lunatic left has become unhinged from reality, complaining about “austerity” as if the problem these days is governments are not spending enough. He cannot say that what we are seeing is chickens coming home to roost (in Europe, in state governments in the U.S., and, unless we pull back from the brink, in the U.S. federal government) from spending and borrowing too much. He cannot point out that since the beginning of the recession, 6 million private sector jobs have been lost (as opposed to the 0.6 million public sector jobs he moans about). He cannot point out that the problem in the public sector is primarily a sticky-wage problem. Instead, he must be subtle and indirect and say, “Yes, you are right that we need more government spending, but we have a trust problem to deal with.”

2. He has gone native.