Poor Paul Krugman

I rely on him for accurate economic analysis. I may have to stop going to his page though. It is hard watching someone you admire, sink into despair. That is the problem with actually seeing what's going on, but being powerless to stop a coming disaster. And it is going to be a disaster on a scale we haven't seen in 80 years.

Recommend this Post

QOTD

From Krugman, who else:

And don’t believe the nonsense about the benefits of spending cuts that has taken over much of our public discourse: slashing spending at a time when the economy is deeply depressed would destroy hundreds of thousands and quite possibly millions of jobs.

Of course, our government will ignore this and we will suffer, and the rich will just keep getting their tax breaks.

Recommend this Post

Who Is Krugman Describing

Anyone we know?

When I was young and naïve, I believed that important people took positions based on careful consideration of the options. Now I know better. Much of what Serious People believe rests on prejudices, not analysis. And these prejudices are subject to fads and fashions.

Of course Krugman was being naive, our Prime Minister has built a career on personal ideological prejudice.

Update: Note Krugman's despair at the stupidity of it all. I guess like most Americans, he has not been paying attention to the rise of our Dear Leader and his crack team of economic geniuses.

Update 2: And finally, a challenge to the MSM. If you ever get the chance to ask Harper another question, perhaps you can formulate it, using Krugman's final paragraph as its base:

So the next time you hear serious-sounding people explaining the need for fiscal austerity, try to parse their argument. Almost surely, you’ll discover that what sounds like hardheaded realism actually rests on a foundation of fantasy, on the belief that invisible vigilantes will punish us if we’re bad and the confidence fairy will reward us if we’re good. And real-world policy — policy that will blight the lives of millions of working families — is being built on that foundation.

Recommend this Post

Save This Article

Paul Krugman vs. super genius economist, Stephen Harper, in a battle royale over world economic policy. I suspect Harper will take the early rounds, as he is backing the interests of the banks and the rich. However, in the long run, I suspect history will prove Krugman right. Not that Harper gives a shit about the long run. By the time this all blows up, he will safely be in the private sector, sitting on the boards of the very banks he is championing.

Recommend this Post

Krugman Must Be Stopped

He is making way too much sense in a world dominated by the guy who thought there was no recession coming in the fall of 2008.

Recommend this Post

Why I Like Paul Krugman Reason 1

Because he saw what was coming four years ago.

So should we all feel confident about the economic future, assuming that Mr. Bernanke is confirmed? Alas, no.

This isn't a comment on Mr. Bernanke's qualifications, although there is one talent, important in a Fed chairman, that Mr. Bernanke has yet to demonstrate (though he may have it). Mr. Greenspan, for all his flaws, has repeatedly shown his ability to divine from fragmentary and sometimes contradictory data which way the economic wind is blowing. As an academic, Mr. Bernanke never had the occasion to make that kind of judgment. We'll just have to see whether he can develop an economic weather sense on the job.

No, my main concern is that the economy may well face a day of reckoning soon after Mr. Bernanke takes office. And while he is surely the best politically possible man for the job (all the other candidates I would have been happy with are independents or Democrats), coping with that day of reckoning without some nasty shocks may be beyond anyone's talents.

The fact is that the U.S. economy's growth over the past few years has depended on two unsustainable trends: a huge surge in house prices and a vast inflow of funds from Asia. Sooner or later, both trends will end, possibly abruptly.

It's true that Mr. Bernanke has given speeches suggesting both that a "global savings glut" will continue to provide the United States with lots of capital inflows, and that housing prices don't reflect a bubble. Well, soothing words are expected from a Fed chairman. He must know that he may be wrong. (October 28, 2005)

If only Jim Flaherty had bothered to read Krugman he wouldn't say stupid things like "no one knew".

Recommend this Post

Hey Paul Krugman

It must be hard for the Paul Martin wing of the Democratic Party to hear coherent criticism coming from a Nobel Prize winner. Then again, toadying to Wall Street during a populist uprising can't be easy either.



H/t to West End Bob.

Recommend this Post

I Am With Krugman

Obama is going to have to stop feeding Republican delusions with public money and spend tax dollars where they will do the most good. He needs to set an example for Canadian Republicans, who are just itching to gut the treasury here, in the name of "stimulus".

Recommend this Post

Krugman For Secretary Of The Treasury

He would have my vote, if I had a vote and if it was an elected position.

Recommend this Post

Saturday Reading

Paul Krugman's introduction to the new edition of Keynes' General Theory. Bonus points if you go out and get this too.

Recommend this Post