Krugman-in-Wonderland
Paul Krugman apparently sees the problems in the economy as a vast Republican Conspiracy to deprive Americans of economic prosperity. According to Krugman’s view of the world, if we want real prosperity, we have to raise taxes, borrow more money, put more public employees on the payroll, and bail out failed industries. And when that rendition of the Broken Window Fallacy fails, there always is Goldstein to blame.
Goldstein1 strikes again. We are not at war with Eurasia; we are at war with Eastasia!
Likewise, the economy was doing just fine UNTIL THE REPUBLICANS TOOK OVER THE HOUSE IN 2011! But for them we’d be in recovery by now and everyone would have a job!
For two years — two years — Barack Obama had an overwhelming Democratic majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, but apparently even then Goldstein was lurking, directing everything in the shadows, keeping the government from spending like it should. Or so Paul Krugman would have us believe.
As I have said many times, I have no hope that Republicans in power would do any better than has Obama, especially given the fact that the housing bubble occurred under the watch of a Republican president and a Republican Congress, at least until 2006. However, I do believe that academic economists should do more than just shill for a political party, and that also means taking a critical look at what those parties are doing in regards to public policies. Instead, Krugman feeds the Democratic Underground more red meat and calls it “economics.”
Krugman’s latest assertion is that Obama is not spending very much at all, and if one counts state government spending, we are in a nation-wide “austerity” program. He writes:
What do I mean by saying that this is already a Republican economy? Look first at total government spending — federal, state and local. Adjusted for population growth and inflation, such spending has recently been falling at a rate not seen since the demobilization that followed the Korean War.How is that possible? Isn’t Mr. Obama a big spender? Actually, no; there was a brief burst of spending in late 2009 and early 2010 as the stimulus kicked in, but that boost is long behind us. Since then it has been all downhill. Cash-strapped state and local governments have laid off teachers, firefighters and police officers; meanwhile, unemployment benefits have been trailing off even though unemployment remains extremely high.
At this point, however, Mr. Obama and his political team don’t seem to have much choice. They can point with pride to some big economic achievements, above all the successful rescue of the auto industry, which is responsible for a large part of whatever job growth we are managing to get.
Professor William L. Anderson is an Austrian School economist and teaches at Frostburg State University in Maryland. He also writes the blog, Krugman-in-Wonderland which critiques Keynesian economics and Professor Krugman’s columns in the NY Times.
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However, Goldstein’s persona as an enemy of the state serves to distract, unite and focus the anger of the people of Oceania. Ostensibly, Goldstein serves an important role as both a convenient scapegoat for the totalitarian regime in 1984, and justifying reason for more military buildup, surveillance and elimination of civil liberties.
Yea I was reading Krugman’s opinion in my local newspaper thinking, what? I really wonder if he can be considered a serious economist due to his excessive partisan rants. Fact- Federal government spending has been rising every year since 2008. As for local and state governments, they’ve had to cut spending in order to be sustainable. Unlike the federal government, these local municipalities do not have a bank to continually buy up debt and have had to cut spending in order to continue paying for long term pension plans, infrastructure spending, and basic services. If states and localities did not cut spending, they would all be bankrupt and shut down. Krugman is naive to the fact that sustainability is key when one doesn’t have the Federal Reserve or Chinese backing debt.
If anything the new Republicans(after 2010) have been offering an alternate plan to the failed and executed one of the Democrat/Republican machine of the last 30 years. Lastly, if Krugman wants a glimpse at what total Democratic government control looks like, witness California- highest taxes in the nation with 1/3 of the welfare cases. Result= Unsustainable debt, tyrannical union power, un-fundable pension obligations, soaring education costs combined with mass layoffs, high unemployment, and dead last ranking in business-friendly environment.
It’s almost like Krugman is advocating spending someone else’s money.
I have lived in California all my life (40 years), and witnessed the decline for many years now. Then end of the good times were when Gov. Pete Wilson got sent packing for trying to fix entitlement spending. Our CA gov is like Lord of the Flies. Many of my friends and acquaintances have moved to Texas or other business friendly states. I am considering a move. It is a horrific situation, and it will go super-nova when pension funds fall short and payments stop. Maybe there will be a FED bailout to kick the ponzi can down the road. (That would be a travesty) Who knows. It’s not going to be pretty. These imbalances tend to drag out for much longer than you expect and then pow.
Despite his credentials and Nobel Krugman is now a brain dead idiot. He has, as have many other, drank the sweet tasting excelsior of free money bottled by the benevolent Winery called the FED which is guaranteed to cure all the wants and needs of the citizens; that is until you wake up in the morning.
San Diego passed a 401k type pension for new government employees. I hope it isn’t matching because it won’t take long to get back into the fiscal mess again as the public employees buy off elected officials to contribute more and more funds.
San Jose passed a minor change to their pension plan for public workers.
My county, wealthy San Mateo, passed a tax on rental car companies and local parcel taxes were passed. You only rent your home here from the public employees.
When a corrupt liberal patronage power structure reaches critical mass, it cannot be undone. Not without a calamity first.