I interviewed Oliver Kamm, The Times columnist and leader writer, the other day to find out his views on the US economy. Oliver was pessimistic about the medium term future: the economy is growing very weakly, it won’t be able to get out of the debt crisis through the “deus ex machina” of growth. The only solution is to raise taxes, which will be very difficult, and extremely unpopular, in an election year. Oliver sees tough times ahead for the US economy.