Wonder if The Prophet has yet realized just how little it takes for populist ideas (good and stupid) which are represented, intentially or otherwise, as official Washington thinking, to take hold in society and become reality. I doubt it. I doubt even more that any pre-analysis around unintended consequences beyond the realization of ideologies has taken hold either.
That said, this is not very surprising and probably would have happened anyway. It has always occurred in previous large economic downturns - across the world btw.