The country is divided when different people take different sides in a debate. The country is really divided when different people are having entirely different debates. That's what's happening on economic policy.

Many people on the left are having a one-sided debate about how to deal with a cyclical downturn. The main argument you hear from these cyclicalists is that the economy is operating well below capacity. To get it moving at full speed, the government should borrow and spend more. The federal government is now running deficits of about $1 trillion a year. Some of these cyclicalists believe the deficit should be about $1.4 trillion.

The cyclicalists rail against what they see as American austerity-mongers who resist new borrowing. They really rail against the European ones. They see François Hollande's victory in France as a sign that, in Europe at least, the pendulum might finally be swinging from austerity to growth.

Other people - some on the left but mostly in the center and on the right - look at the cyclicalists and shrug. It's not that they are necessarily wrong to bash excessive austerity. They're simply failing to address the core issues.

The diverse people in this camp - and I'm one of them - believe the core problems are structural, not cyclical. The recession grew out of and exposed long-term flaws in the economy. Fixing these structural problems should be the order of the day, not papering over them with more debt.

David Fuller's view I am with David Brooks on this debate but a majority of voters want instant solutions. Consequently, the clamour for more public spending and welfare is growing on both sides of the Atlantic.