Krugman as Loyal Opposition

Nick Gillespie | September 24, 2009

From Russ Smith of Splice Today:

It appears certain that [New York Times columnist Paul] Krugman's disappointment with Obama will only be ratcheted up in the coming year—after all, he originally favored John Edwards for president last year—and the only question is how harsh his columns will be. He concludes: "It's time for the president to realize that sometimes populism, especially populism that makes bankers angry, is exactly what the economy needs."

Well, nuts to that, is my view, and it's a welcome spectacle to see the clueless Sen. Max Baucus get battered from all sides with his health care bill (which is tax-heavy and confusing), and receive little support from Obama, Harry Reid or Pelosi. Still, this is why I grudgingly read Krugman (everyone needs an occasional shot or two of Castor Oil): he tells Obama and his advisers what they don't want to hear.... Krugman's a loyal opposition within a (too) loyal majority.

Whole thing here.

Comments

|9.24.09 @ 12:36PM|#

I grudgingly read Krugman (everyone needs an occasional shot or two of Castor Oil)

This is why I outsource my reading of Klugman. I already shout too much at the tee-vee. Yelling at my newspaper just seems odd.

|9.24.09 @ 12:40PM|#

I get to be the first to point out Krugman's racism?!?!? Cool!!!!!

Jordan|9.24.09 @ 12:48PM|#

Krugman is deranged. That smackdown by that University of Chicago prof that someone linked to yesterday was epic.

Tim Cavanaugh|9.24.09 @ 12:53PM|#

When he says "nuts to that" does he mean, "Nuts, I won't surrender Bastogne" or "Bully for him"?

Porky|9.24.09 @ 12:55PM|#

Krugman is deranged. I heard that he wants sharks with laser beams on their heads for his office fish tank. I guess he's tired of the cats.

tarran|9.24.09 @ 12:58PM|#

Yeah, because nothing says insight like obsessively treating a complex matrix that is the capital structure of the U.S. economy as if it's a scalar.

Krugman's op-eds are to economics what Terry Nazon's writings are to astro-physics.

|9.24.09 @ 1:00PM|#

Repost the link to the smackdown por favor, even if doing so proves you're a racist.

|9.24.09 @ 1:02PM|#

This is why I outsource my reading of Klugman.

How dare you confuse nitwit economist Krugman with lovable character actor Klugman!

Kevin|9.24.09 @ 1:06PM|#

Nick, thanks so much for sparing us from looking at a picture of Krugman and his infamous beard.

tarran|9.24.09 @ 1:07PM|#

Well here's Bob Murphy's lecture on capital structure that effectively knocks over Krugman's Cargo Cult version of economics.

Jordan|9.24.09 @ 1:07PM|#

Krugman smackdown

|9.24.09 @ 1:09PM|#

Nope. Refuse to read anything that asshat Krugman writes.

|9.24.09 @ 1:13PM|#

Who has the list of "Krugman wanted a housing bubble" quotes for any new readers who wind up here?

|9.24.09 @ 1:22PM|#

Progressives perpetually ridicule conservatives for wanting to return to some imaginary Leave it to Beaver version of America, but Krugman wants to turn the bankers' clocks back to It's a Wonderful Life, when banking was "boring".

Shut the fuck up, Nobel Laureate Krugman.

iamse7en|9.24.09 @ 1:26PM|#

Loyal opposition?

As Boudreaux wrote:

Noting that "it's important to have some perspective," Paul Krugman argues that while Uncle Sam's budget deficit is now large, "we also have a huge economy, which means that things aren't as scary as you might think" ("Till Debt Does Its Part," August 28). Whew! No cause for much concern, for the size of America's GDP swamps the size of the budget deficit.

During the Bush years, however, Mr. Krugman preached a different gospel. For example, in his February 11, 2005 column - devoted to condemning tax cuts - he insisted that "the deficit is indeed a major problem."

So let's take Mr. Krugman's advice and get some perspective. In 2005, when Mr. Krugman insisted that government's budget deficit was "indeed a major problem," that deficit was 2.5 percent of GDP. Today, when Mr. Krugman no longer is very concerned about the budget deficit, that deficit will be about 11 percent of GDP. Hmmmm….

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

|9.24.09 @ 1:59PM|#

he originally favored John Edwards for president last year

Seriously?
Yet another reason to despise Krugman.

|9.24.09 @ 2:04PM|#

but.....but.....he won a Nobel Prize!!!

|9.24.09 @ 2:14PM|#

PRIZES ARE MINE!

¢|9.24.09 @ 2:30PM|#

When he says "nuts to that" does he mean, "Nuts, I won't surrender Bastogne" or "Bully for him"?

I was confused, too.

My WTF? got cleared up when I realized that the guy really had to strain to find so much as a rhetorical flourish where he could seem to side with Obama and against Krugman, if he was going to paint Mr. Prize as any kind of "opposition." When you're bullshitting that hard, Freud often subtly intervenes.

Penis.

|9.24.09 @ 2:32PM|#

Maybe he literally wants to give his testicles to Obama. Men have done it before in service of their bloody-minded Gawd.

|9.24.09 @ 2:33PM|#

I remember reading some of P-Krug's columns back in the lefty-halcyon days of March during the Great Stimulation debate. He wanted something like $2 trillion borrowed from Uncle Mao, not just a measly $500 billion or so, and no tax cuts as part of the stimulating.

When the Inflation Monster shows up next year and eats a couple of his cats, I wonder what he will blame it on? Bush maybe? The fact we only borrowed half a trill instead of a cool two trill? His unintentional comedy that way will be a bright spot in a dark economic world by then.

Sean W. Malone|9.24.09 @ 2:47PM|#

Not to be one to rain on a Paul Krugman smackdown, which I do so thoroughly enjoy... but Cochrane's rebuttal was full of holes - Bob Murphy explains why at his blog Free Advice.

MJ|9.24.09 @ 6:24PM|#

"Still, this is why I grudgingly read Krugman (everyone needs an occasional shot or two of Castor Oil): he tells Obama and his advisers what they don't want to hear.... Krugman's a loyal opposition within a (too) loyal majority."

Krugman's going to play Fr. Coughlin to Obama's FDR? Cool.

|9.24.09 @ 6:47PM|#

Opposition, my ass. The only thing Krugman complains about is that the government isn't blowing ENOUGH money on their brain-dead New Deal II programs.

-jcr

The Libertarian Guy|9.24.09 @ 8:09PM|#

Krugman backed Edwards?

That figures. Mr. Two Americas was soooo likeable, what with his silky tresses being coiffed at hundreds of dollars a styling session, JUST LIKE poor people do.

And, he cheated on his cancer-stricken wife, which come to think of it just makes him a typical politician.

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