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My Nephew Takes on Paul Krugman . . .
2008-08-09 01:58:00 . . . and wins. When I returned to my Dad’s after a day with my one of my younger brothers, his son and daughters, my blogging nephew was frantically typing away on his grandpa’s (the PatriotFatherWest) laptop. He told me he was taking issue with Paul Krugman’s latest column. As my nephew blogged, I picked up ...
By: GayPatriot
Paul Krugman Blasts Obama: Bitter Stereotypes
2008-04-18 16:43:00 Paul Krugman in his recent New York Times editorial titled: ?Clinging to Stereotypes? (April 18, 2008), attempted to dissect Barack Obama?s now famous ?bitter? quote. Making arguments that only a conservative pundit could, Krugman went line by line utilizing the most intellectually honest arguments. Not only were his opinions factually accurate, Paul Krugman transcended his own liberal elitism in... Click the Headline Link to Visit Copious Dissent and Read the Full Story.
Paul Krugman: In places like Miami or Los Angeles, you could be looking at
2008-04-10 13:25:00 Fortune Magazine interviewed Princeton economist Paul Krugman: How far do you think home prices will fall? My preferred metric is the ratio of home prices to rental rates. By that measure, average home prices nationally got way too high. We’ll probably basically retrace all that. So that’s about a 25% decline in overall home prices. Only a ...
By: National Bubble
Partying Like Its 1929 (Paul Krugman NYTimes)
2008-03-23 13:22:00 If Ben Bernanke manages to save the financial system from collapse, he will - rightly - be praised for his heroic efforts.But what we should be asking is: How did we get here?Why does the financial system need salvation?Why do mild-mannered economists have to become superheroes?The answer, at a fundamental level, is that we're paying the price for willful amnesia. We chose to forget what happened in the 1930s - and having refused to learn from history, we're repeating it.Contrary to popular belief, the stock market crash of 1929 wasn't the defining moment of the Great Depression. What turned an ordinary recession into a civilization-threatening slump was the wave of bank runs that swept across America in 1930 and 1931.This banking crisis of the 1930s showed that unregulated, unsupervised financial markets can all too easily suffer catastrophic failure.As the decades passed, however, that lesson was forgotten - and now we're relearning it, the hard way.Read the full article at NY...
Paul Krugman Rejoices In BearStearns Fallout. . .
2008-03-19 19:16:00 From his own blog: Wow. I?m spending spring break in an undisclosed location, and spent most of the day getting here. So I didn?t know about the Bear Stearns story until a little while ago. But when I did learn about it, I also learned that some evil lurks in my heart. I shouldn?t be feeling even a touch of glee over seeing a firm that has been such a major source of really nefarious... Click the Headline Link to Visit Copious Dissent and Read the Full Story.
Global Warming Today: Paul Krugman Demonizes Ethanol
2008-02-23 15:41:00 No, really, he does. Snort Worthy! I?m almost never censored at the Times. However, I was told that I couldn?t use the lede I originally wrote for my column following the 2007 State of the Union address, in which Bush made ethanol the centerpiece of his energy strategy: ?Before the State of the Union address, there ...
By: Pirate's Cove
Paul Krugman Hates Hate, and Obama, and Obama Supporters
2008-02-11 19:19:00 Paul Krugman is at it again. If nothing else, he sure shows that the rules at The New York Times against a columnist endorsing a candidate by name are rather meaningless. Everyone knows he hates Obama. He first backed Edwards but with Edwards out of the race he has become as firmly a member of ...
By: Liberal Values
Who's out of touch with reality: Paul Krugman or me?
2008-02-11 18:41:00 One of us is nuts: I won’t try for fake evenhandedness here: most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody. I’m not the first to point out that the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality. We’ve already had that from the Bush administration — remember Operation Flight Suit? We really don’t want to go there again... I call it Clinton rules, but it’s a pattern that goes well beyond the Clintons. For example, Al Gore was subjected to Clinton rules during the 2000 campaign: anything he said, and some things he didn’t say (no, he never claimed to have invented the Internet), was held up as proof of his alleged character flaws... For now, Clinton rules are working in Mr. Obama’s favor. But his supporters should not take comfort in that fact... For another, if history is any guide, if Mr. Obama wins the nomination, he will quickly find himself being subjected...
By: Asymmetric
Smoke and Mirrors
2008-01-25 17:41:00 So, it's finally happening - the bubble has burst and the economy is in a melt down. This comes as no surprise to many of us. Paul Krugman anticipated it in August of 2005. Well, last week Mr Greenspan warned us about the very condition his smoke and mirrors economics had created and Paul Krugman explains.Greenspan and the Bubble What he did say, after emphasizing the recent economic importance of rising house prices, was that "this vast increase in the market value of asset claims is in part the indirect result of investors accepting lower compensation for risk. Such an increase in market value is too often viewed by market participants as structural and permanent." And he warned that "history has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low-risk premiums." I believe that translates as "Beware the bursting bubble."Like everything else, the economic policy of the Bush administration has been driven by politics. The so called "recovery" has not created new wealth...
Democrats Crying Over Spilled Milk
2008-01-21 18:33:00 The Democrats recently have been eating their own worse than the Republicans ever could. First, there were racial tensions created between the Clintons and Obama. Now after Obama praised Ronald Reagan for inspiring the Country, the Clintons and John Edwards went on the attack. ?How dare you praise Ronald Reagan!? Even Paul Krugman blasted Obama today in the New York Times for saying nice... Click the Headline Link to Visit Copious Dissent and Read the Full Story.
Paul Krugman Misses His Own Answer To His Question
2007-12-31 08:18:00 Paul Krugman has asked a question he did not believe there was an answer to and then, without realizing it, answered it twice. At his blog he links to Chris Bowers’ dismissive post at Open Left on the contemplated presidential run by Michael Bloomberg and then asks, “Seriously, why does anyone think this makes sense? ...
By: Liberal Values
Paul Krugman Supports Continuation of Bush/Rove Style Politics
2007-12-27 02:01:00 The mind set behind Paul Krugman’s recent attacks on Barack Obama become clear from reading the excerpt from his book, The Conscience of a Liberal which appears at Slate. Krugman’s objections to Obama are over matters far greater than their disagreement over mandates on health care. The two have a totally different philosophy of government, ...
By: Liberal Values
Paul Krugman?s False Analogy to Medicare In Support of Mandates
2007-12-08 03:30:00 Paul Krugman makes some serious errors as he continues his attacks on Barack Obama for proposing a health care reform plan without a mandate for all individuals to purchase insurance. There are pros and cons to both positions but Krugman writes as if only plans with mandates are possible. This ignores the fact that most ...
By: Liberal Values
Paul Krugman: No vote for Southerners until they overcome racism
2007-11-21 23:11:00 In an interview with Asymmetric, New Yok Times columnist Paul Krugman followed up on his column accusing Ronald Reagan and Republicans of harvesting racist votes with its "Southern Strategy" by suggesting that Southern whites be disenfranchised for 12 years to give them time to expunge their racism: Welcome to Asymmetric. You wrote recently on Reagan and racism. It affected all thinking people. Now, you want to do something about the problem. Care to elaborate? => Read more!
By: Asymmetric
Ruth Marcus takes on Paul Krugman - and wins this round.
2007-11-21 17:34:00 NYTimes commentator Paul Krugman is an economist who tackles all sorts of issues beyond just the economy, and I’ve been reading him since the early 1990s when I first discovered the New York Times. While I find I agree with him on a great many issues, I cannot understand his recent downplaying of the problem of Social Security. Last week he ripped Senator Barak Obama a new orifice for having the audacity to suggest that the Social Security problem was actually a “crisis,” and while I agree that Sen. Obama could have chosen a better word, the fact of the matter is that it’s easier and cheaper to fix Social Security’s various problems sooner rather than later. And, as the Washinton Post’s Ruth Marcus pointed out in her commentary today, even noted commentator and economist Paul Krugman agrees with me. In a commentary that is a thing of beauty, Ms. Marcus fed Mr. Krugman his own words from prior commentaries going back to to 1996, and in the proces...
Storm Clouds
2007-11-02 16:34:00 The House and the Senate are about to send another SCHIP bill to Bush who will veto it. There is every indication that the veto will be sustained in the house. Now the veto and refusal by the House has nothing to do with children's health, a few million dollars or a cigarette tax. It is all about a growing storm that threatens the bottom line of the insurance industry. In an opinion piece that received little attention the New York Times describes this storm front.America?s Lagging Health Care System Americans are increasingly frustrated about the subpar performance of this country?s fragmented health care system, and with good reason. A new survey of patients in seven industrialized nations underscores just how badly sick Americans fare compared with patients in other nations. One-third of the American respondents felt their system is so dysfunctional that it needs to be rebuilt completely ? the highest rate in any country surveyed. The system was given poor scores both by low-inc...
Paul Krugman Proved A Fool By British Islamists
2007-10-30 23:23:00 Paul Krugman, New York Times’ resident Bush Hater & Appeaser (and man, that’s quite an accomplishment) wrote a widely discussed piece on Monday: Fearing Fear Itself. It features all of the now-routine liberal rhetoric designed to undercut and de-legitimize our war effort and our American government itself. But the key line of the piece was this: For ...
By: GayPatriot
The only thing to fear is the fear mongers
2007-10-29 06:09:00 Paul Krugman hits a home run again. Of course it helps that it is primarily about my latest target, Rudy Giuliani.Fearing Fear Itself Consider, for a moment, the implications of the fact that Rudy Giuliani is taking foreign policy advice from Norman Podhoretz, who wants us to start bombing Iran ?as soon as it is logistically possible.?Mr. Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary and a founding neoconservative, tells us that Iran is the ?main center of the Islamofascist ideology against which we have been fighting since 9/11.? The Islamofascists, he tells us, are well on their way toward creating a world ?shaped by their will and tailored to their wishes.? Indeed, ?Already, some observers are warning that by the end of the 21st century the whole of Europe will be transformed into a place to which they give the name Eurabia.?Do I have to point out that none of this makes a bit of sense?A figment of the neocon imagination For one thing, there isn?t actually any such thing as Islamofascism ?...
Another Failed Experiment
2007-10-26 17:51:00 In a paper presented just before his death, Mr. Gramlich wrote that ?the subprime market was the Wild West. Over half the mortgage loans were made by independent lenders without any federal supervision.? What he didn?t mention was that this was the way the laissez-faire ideologues ruling Washington ? a group that very much included Mr. Greenspan ? wanted it. They were and are men who believe that government is always the problem, never the solution, that regulation is always a bad thing.Unfortunately, assertions that unregulated financial markets would take care of themselves have proved as wrong as claims that deregulation would reduce electricity prices.We are just beginning to realize the impact of the subprime lending crisis will be. Today Paul Krugman explains how the crisis was predicted and how it could have been prevented but wasn't.A Catastrophe Foretold ?Increased subprime lending has been associated with higher levels of delinquency, foreclosure and, in some cases, abusi...
The incompetent mob
2007-10-19 06:54:00 Paul Krugman hits a home run with his op ed today. He says the GOP in it's present form is dead and very few a sad about it. I'm sure John Cole would agree. In the Death of the Machine Krugman reminds us that for the first time since anyone can remember the Republicans are far behind the Democrats in cash. Karl Rove has often described Hanna as his role model. And predictions that Mr. Rove and his disciples would succeed in creating a permanent Republican majority ? I have a whole bookshelf of volumes with titles like ?One Party Nation? and ?Building Red America? ? depended crucially on the assumption that the G.O.P. would have vastly more money than its opponents. It might even, some thought, match the 10-to-1 advantage Hanna gave William McKinley when he ran against William Jennings Bryan.Oops. According to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, in the current election cycle every one of the top 10 industries making political donations is giving more money to Demo...
Privatize It All
2007-09-28 06:10:00 When I did the posts on Blackwater here and here I was thinking that is should be no surprise that the Bush/Cheney cabal would use mercenaries in Iraq - they have attempted to privatize everything else and the results have been equally disastrous. Well today Paul Krugman is thinking virtually out loud in:Hired Gun Fetish Sometimes it seems that the only way to make sense of the Bush administration is to imagine that it?s a vast experiment concocted by mad political scientists who want to see what happens if a nation systematically ignores everything we?ve learned over the past few centuries about how to make a modern government work.Thus, the administration has abandoned the principle of a professional, nonpolitical civil service, stuffing agencies from FEMA to the Justice Department with unqualified cronies. Tax farming ? giving individuals the right to collect taxes, in return for a share of the take ? went out with the French Revolution; now the tax farmers are back.And so are me...
First Aid for Legacies
2007-09-17 16:34:00 As George W. Bush tries to salvage what will be his own misrable legacy those associated with his administration are trying to do the same by distancing themselves from him. One of those is Alan Greenspan. As Paul Krugman points out it's too little too late. He had plenty of opportunities over the last six plus years and didn't.Sad Alan?s Lament When President Bush first took office, it seemed unlikely that he would succeed in getting his proposed tax cuts enacted. The questionable nature of his installation in the White House seemed to leave him in a weak political position, while the Senate was evenly balanced between the parties. It was hard to see how a huge, controversial tax cut, which delivered most of its benefits to a wealthy elite, could get through Congress.Then Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, testified before the Senate Budget Committee.Until then Mr. Greenspan had presented himself as the voice of fiscal responsibility, warning the Clinton adminis...
New Slogan but still no strategy
2007-09-14 17:46:00 The only Iraq strategy we saw this week was an attempt to avoid losing even more support for Bush's failed occupation. The congressional testimony of Petraeus and Crocker and Geroge W. Bush's speech to the base turned out to be nothing but more spin and deception directed at the diminishing base so that Bush can buy time and pass his latest mess onto the next administration. The paper of record, the New York Times, which is partly responsible for selling the ill conceived invasion and occupation of Iraq has an excellent analysis today.No Exit, No Strategy This was the week in which Americans hoped they would get straight talk and clear thinking on Iraq. What they got was two exhausting days of Congressional testimony by the American military commander, hours of news conferences and interviews, clouds of cut-to-order statistics and a speech from the Oval Office ? and none of it either straight or clear.The White House insisted that President Bush had consulted intensively with his ...
Krugman gets it right
2007-09-07 16:06:00 Paul Krugman says it'sTime to Take a Stand but the Democrats won't.What Petraeus will say: Here?s what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he?ll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq ? as long as you don?t count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites, Iraqis killed by car bombs and people shot in the front of the head.What the Democrats will do: Here?s what I?m afraid will happen: Democrats will look at Gen. Petraeus?s uniform and medals and fall into their usual cringe. They won?t ask hard questions out of fear that someone might accuse them of attacking the military. After the testimony, they?ll desperately try to get Republicans to agree to a resolution that politely asks President Bush to maybe, possibly, withdraw some troops, if he feels like it.What the Democrats should remember: First, no independent assessment has concluded that violence in Iraq is down. On the contrary, estimates based on morgue, ho...
David Petraeus - the partisan General?
2007-09-04 01:46:00 A few weeks ago I wrote the following over at The Gun Toting Liberal: To reach the rank of general you have to be part politician, it has always been that way. A good general is always a general first and a politician second. Those who had been generals first have over the last six years have been driven from the service by Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush administration. What we have left are men like General Petraeus. Not only a politician but a political hack. We know what he?s going to say in September because he said it all yesterday on wingnut radio, The Hugh Hewitt Show. On cue from Hugh he recited all the administration/neocon talking points. Glenn Greenwald does a good job of documenting how General Petraeus has been talking the neocon/administration talking points on Iraq from day one and not unlike William Kristol has been proven wrong over and over again. But in the media Petraeus is still sold as the brilliant saviour of Bush?s failed occupation of Iraq.Before General David...
Reality Based Solutions
2007-08-17 18:54:00 The Krug Man warns that "the housing slump will probably be with us for years, not months." What can we do about it? Read on.Workouts, Not BailoutBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesIn April, Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, declared that all the signs he saw indicated that the housing market was ?at or near the bottom.? Earlier this month he was still insisting that problems caused by the meltdown in the market for subprime mortgages were ?largely contained.?But the time for denial is past.According to data released yesterday, both housing starts and applications for building permits have fallen to their lowest levels in a decade, showing that home construction is still in free fall. And if historical relationships are any guide, home prices are still way too high. The housing slump will probably be with us for years, not months.Meanwhile, it?s becoming clear that the mortgage problem is anything but contained. For one thing, it?s not confined to subprime mortgages, which are ...
Clones
2007-08-13 15:46:00 Paul Krugman wonders if the country is really ready for another totally self centered President - a clone of George W. Bush. He points out that it would appear that two of the candidates fit that mold very well. George W Bush was at least a little subtle about his narcissism, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani are not.It?s All About Them Ask not what your country can do for you ? ask what you can do for your father?s political campaign.Last week, at one of Mitt Romney?s ?Ask Mitt? forums, a woman in the audience asked Mr. Romney whether any of his five sons are serving in the military and, if not, when they plan to enlist.The candidate replied with a rambling attempt to change the subject, but near the end he let his real feelings slip. ?It?s remarkable how we can show our support for our nation,? he said, ?and one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected, because they think I?d be a great president.?Wow. The important point isn?t the fact that ...
The Next Narcissist-in-Chief?
2007-08-13 05:03:00 It's All About ThemBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesAsk not what your country can do for you ? ask what you can do for your father?s political campaign.Last week, at one of Mitt Romney?s ?Ask Mitt? forums, a woman in the audience asked Mr. Romney whether any of his five sons are serving in the military and, if not, when they plan to enlist.The candidate replied with a rambling attempt to change the subject, but near the end he let his real feelings slip. ?It?s remarkable how we can show our support for our nation,? he said, ?and one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected, because they think I?d be a great president.?Wow. The important point isn?t the fact that Mr. Romney?s sons aren?t in uniform ? although it is striking just how few of those who claim to believe that we?re engaged in a struggle for our very existence think that they themselves should be called on to make any sacrifices. The point is, instead, that Mr. Romney apparently ...
Economic Doomsday?
2007-08-10 19:54:00 The Krug Man weighs in on the current financial liquidity crisis in today's Times. The really scary thing about it, according to Krugman, is that there is not a whole lot policy makers can do to remedy the situation. I'm not panicking yet, and neither is Mr. Krugman. But now would be a great time for anyone so religiously inclined to say a prayer or two....Very Scary ThingsBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesIn September 1998, the collapse of Long Term Capital Management, a giant hedge fund, led to a meltdown in the financial markets similar, in some ways, to what?s happening now. During the crisis in ?98, I attended a closed-door briefing given by a senior Federal Reserve official, who laid out the grim state of the markets. ?What can we do about it?? asked one participant. ?Pray,? replied the Fed official.Our prayers were answered. The Fed coordinated a rescue for L.T.C.M., while Robert Rubin, the Treasury secretary at the time, and Alan Greenspan, who was the Fed chairman, assu...
Credibility Shortage
2007-08-10 16:06:00 The DOW lost nearly 400 points yesterday and opened over 100 points down this morning. And it's not just the US.Fears of global liquidity crisis grip markets LONDON (Reuters) - Fears of a global liquidity crisis intensified on Friday, knocking stocks and high-yielding currencies, while the European Central Bank and Asian authorities acted to calm surging short-term borrowing costs.What started as trouble with risky U.S. residential mortgages is gripping world financial markets as the fallout hits banks globally, squeezes once ample liquidity and threatens to damage world growth.World stocks have shed over seven percent since they hit record highs only a month ago. Investors rushed to buy safe-haven government bonds, unwind yen-financed carry trades and moved to scale back expectations for interest rate hikes by some major central banks this year.Emergency action by central banks -- with the ECB acting for the second time on Friday -- underlined that the risk of a global liquidity c...
Substance Abuse
2007-08-07 04:38:00 The media continues mindlessly on it's marathon disaster reportaton. The politicians continue to punt the soft ball questions tossed their way by pandering pundits. Our completely corrupted political process stumbles along its preordained path.Paul Krugman, in todays Times op ed, reports on the continuing lack of substance in current presidential debates.The Substance ThingBy Paul KrugmanThe New York Times"Two presidential elections ago, the conventional wisdom said that George W. Bush was a likable, honest fellow. But those of us who actually analyzed what he was saying about policy came to a different conclusion ? namely, that he was irresponsible and deeply dishonest. His numbers didn?t add up, and in his speeches he simply lied about the content of his own proposals.In the fifth year of the disastrous war Mr. Bush started on false pretenses, it?s clear who was right. What a candidate says about policy, not the supposedly revealing personal anecdotes political reporters love t...
Compassionate Conservatism in a nutshell
2007-07-30 16:59:00 Paul Krugman reminds us today that George W. Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism" is An Immoral Philosophy and that Bush and other conservatives oppose the Schip program because they fear it will work. It must be about philosophy, because it surely isn?t about cost. One of the plans Mr. Bush opposes, the one approved by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the Senate Finance Committee, would cost less over the next five years than we?ll spend in Iraq in the next four months. And it would be fully paid for by an increase in tobacco taxes.The House plan, which would cover more children, is more expensive, but it offsets Schip costs by reducing subsidies to Medicare Advantage ? a privatization scheme that pays insurance companies to provide coverage, and costs taxpayers 12 percent more per beneficiary than traditional Medicare.Strange to say, however, the administration, although determined to prevent any expansion of children?s health care, is also dead set against any cut in Medica...
Denial isn't just a river in Africa
2007-07-27 18:28:00 After reaching a new high about a week ago the market is diving for the second day in a row. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday as persistent concern about financing for corporate takeovers amid a broadening deterioration in credit markets offset positive data on economic growth.Comments by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson briefly lent some support, but the underlying tone on Wall Street remained nervous, a day after equities suffered their second worst decline of the year.Thursday's selling wiped out more than $300 billion in the value of the S&P 500.Paul Krugman reminds us that this should not be a surprise to anyone who was paying attention but apparently a lot of people weren't.The Sum of Some Fears (TS)Yesterday?s scary ride in the markets wasn?t a full-fledged panic. The interest rate on 10-year U.S. government bonds ? a much better indicator than stock prices of what investors think will happen to the economy ? fell sharply, but even so, it ended the day higher than...
U.S. Web Lag
2007-07-23 05:00:00 The French ConnectionsBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesThere was a time when everyone thought that the Europeans and the Japanese were better at business than we were. In the early 1990s airport bookstores were full of volumes with samurai warriors on their covers, promising to teach you the secrets of Japanese business success. Lester Thurow?s 1992 book, ?Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe and America,? which spent more than six months on the Times best-seller list, predicted that Europe would win.Then it all changed, and American despondency turned into triumphalism. Partly this was because the Clinton boom contrasted so sharply with Europe?s slow growth and Japan?s decade-long slump. Above all, however, our new confidence reflected the rise of the Internet. Jacques Chirac complained that the Internet was an ?Anglo-Saxon network,? and he had a point ? France, like most of Europe except Scandinavia, lagged far behind the U.S. when it came to getting online...
Confident???
2007-07-20 15:40:00 As Eugene Robinson reported George W. Bush was described as "confident" buy a group of conservative pundits who were given an audience. Robinson suggested this should terrify us especially the messianic nature of his confidence. Earlier in the week Harold Meyerson talked about the spineless Republican senators who talk the talk but won't walk the walk when it come to opposing Bush's Iraq policy. Paul Krugman puts it all together today in one of his best commentaries recently.All the President?s Enablers (TS) In a coordinated public relations offensive, the White House is using reliably friendly pundits ? amazingly, they still exist ? to put out the word that President Bush is as upbeat and confident as ever. It might even be true.What I don?t understand is why we?re supposed to consider Mr. Bush?s continuing confidence a good thing.Remember, Mr. Bush was confident six years ago when he promised to bring in Osama, dead or alive. He was confident four years ago, when he told the ins...
All the President's Enablers
2007-07-20 06:58:00 By Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesIn a coordinated public relations offensive, the White House is using reliably friendly pundits ? amazingly, they still exist ? to put out the word that President Bush is as upbeat and confident as ever. It might even be true.What I don?t understand is why we?re supposed to consider Mr. Bush?s continuing confidence a good thing.Remember, Mr. Bush was confident six years ago when he promised to bring in Osama, dead or alive. He was confident four years ago, when he told the insurgents to bring it on. He was confident two years ago, when he told Brownie that he was doing a heckuva job.Now Iraq is a bloody quagmire, Afghanistan is deteriorating and the Bush administration?s own National Intelligence Estimate admits, in effect, that thanks to Mr. Bush?s poor leadership America is losing the struggle with Al Qaeda. Yet Mr. Bush remains confident.Sorry, but that?s not reassuring; it?s terrifying. It doesn?t demonstrate Mr. Bush?s strength of character; it ...
No More Excuses
2007-07-17 03:02:00 The Krug Man points out in today's Times op ed that "the opponents of universal health care appear to have run out of honest arguments." The question is, what will Americans -- as in YOU -- do to demand universal health care? The Waiting GameBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesBeing without health insurance is no big deal. Just ask President Bush. ?I mean, people have access to health care in America,? he said last week. ?After all, you just go to an emergency room.?This is what you might call callousness with consequences. The White House has announced that Mr. Bush will veto a bipartisan plan that would extend health insurance, and with it such essentials as regular checkups and preventive medical care, to an estimated 4.1 million currently uninsured children. After all, it?s not as if those kids really need insurance ? they can just go to emergency rooms, right?O.K., it?s not news that Mr. Bush has no empathy for people less fortunate than himself. But his willful ignorance here i...
Dems Hedge on Tax Loophole
2007-07-13 05:46:00 An Unjustified PrivilegeBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesDuring the 2000 presidential campaign, Ralph Nader mocked politicians of both parties as ?Republicrats,? equally subservient to corporations and the wealthy. It was nonsense, of course: the modern G.O.P. is so devoted to the cause of making the rich richer that it makes even the most business-friendly Democrats look like F.D.R.But right now, as I watch Senate Democrats waffle over what should be a clear issue of justice and sound tax policy ? namely, whether managers of private equity funds and hedge funds should be subject to the same taxes as ordinary working Americans ? I?m starting to feel that Mr. Nader wasn?t all wrong.What?s at stake here is a proposal by House Democrats to tax ?carried interest? as regular income. This would close a tax loophole that is complicated in detail, but basically lets fund managers take a large part of the fees they earn for handling other peoples? money and redefine those fees, for tax purpo...
America: SICKO Society
2007-07-09 05:24:00 Another Krugman MUST READ op ed follows. By the way, if you haven't yet seen Michael Moore's "SICKO" yet, do. If you see only one film this year -- see "SICKO." It ought to be required viewing for every citizen in this country. The film will move you. It will surprise you. It will make you think. It will make you angry. Most important, it hopefully will make you DO SOMETHING: lobby your representatives loudly and ceaselessly for Universal Health Care. Health Care TerrorBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesThese days terrorism is the first refuge of scoundrels. So when British authorities announced that a ring of Muslim doctors working for the National Health Service was behind the recent failed bomb plot, we should have known what was coming.?National healthcare: Breeding ground for terror?? read the on-screen headline, as the Fox News host Neil Cavuto and the commentator Jerry Bowyer solemnly discussed how universal health care promotes terrorism.While this was crass even by...
From the people that brought you Enron
2007-07-02 16:37:00 Paul Krugman explains that the meltdown in the sub prime home lending market is the responsibility of the same folks who are responsible for Enron, S.& P., Moody?s and Fitch, the bond-rating agencies.Just Say AAA What do you get when you cross a Mafia don with a bond salesman? A dealer in collateralized debt obligations (C.D.O.?s) ? someone who makes you an offer you don?t understand.Seriously, it?s starting to look as if C.D.O.?s were to this decade?s housing bubble what Enron-style accounting was to the stock bubble of the 1990s. Both made investors think they were getting a much better deal than they really were. And the new scandal raises two obvious questions: Why were the bond-rating agencies taken in (again), and where were the regulators?What you see is not what you get or Enron redux. To understand the fuss over C.D.O.?s, you first have to realize that in the later stages of the great 2000-2005 housing boom, banks were making a lot of dubious loans. In particular, there was...
America's Media Empire
2007-06-29 05:50:00 The Murdoch FactorBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesIn October 2003, the nonpartisan Program on International Policy Attitudes published a study titled ?Misperceptions, the media and the Iraq war.? It found that 60 percent of Americans believed at least one of the following: clear evidence had been found of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda; W.M.D. had been found in Iraq; world public opinion favored the U.S. going to war with Iraq.The prevalence of these misperceptions, however, depended crucially on where people got their news. Only 23 percent of those who got their information mainly from PBS or NPR believed any of these untrue things, but the number was 80 percent among those relying primarily on Fox News. In particular, two-thirds of Fox devotees believed that the U.S. had ?found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.?So, does anyone think it?s O.K. if Rupert Murdoch?s News Corporation, which owns Fox News, buys The...
It's the Policy, Stupid.
2007-06-18 05:09:00 Authentic? Never MindBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesRich liberals who claim they?ll help America?s less fortunate are phonies.Let me give you one example ? a Democrat who said he?d work on behalf of workers and the poor. He even said he?d take on Big Business. But the truth is that while he was saying those things, he was living in a big house and had a pretty lavish summer home too. His favorite recreation, sailing, was incredibly elitist. And he didn?t talk like a regular guy.Clearly, this politician wasn?t authentic. His name? Franklin Delano Roosevelt.Luckily, that?s not how the political game was played 70 years ago. F.D.R. wasn?t accused of being a phony; he was accused of being a ?traitor to his class.? But today, it seems, politics is all about seeming authentic. A recent Associated Press analysis of the political scene asked: ?Can you fake authenticity? Probably not, but it might be worth a try.?What does authenticity mean? Supposedly it means not pretending to be who you...
Something Amiss in America
2007-06-18 05:02:00 America Comes Up ShortBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesLONDONTraveling through Europe recently, I?ve been able to confirm through personal experience what statistical surveys tell us: the perceived stature of Americans is not what it was. Europeans used to look up to us; now, many of them look down on us instead.No, I?m not talking metaphorically about our loss of moral authority in the wake of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. I?m literally talking about feet and inches.To the casual observer, Europeans ? who often seemed short, even to me (I?m 5-foot-7), when I first began traveling a lot in the 1970s ? now often seem tall by American standards. And that casual observation matches what careful researchers have found.The data show that Americans, who in the words of a recent paper by the economic historian John Komlos and Benjamin Lauderdale in Social Science Quarterly, were ?tallest in the world between colonial times and the middle of the 20th century,? have now ?become shorter (and fat...
Krugman on the press
2007-06-08 17:15:00 I think that many of us believe we have suffered through six disastrous years of the Bush presidency and we are mired in a quagmire in Iraq in large part because of an incompetent, complacent and lazy press corps. Well today Paul Krugman reminds us that nothing has changed.Lies, Sighs and Politics In Tuesday?s Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney completely misrepresented how we ended up in Iraq. Later, Mike Huckabee mistakenly claimed that it was Ronald Reagan?s birthday.Guess which remark The Washington Post identified as the ?gaffe of the night??Folks, this is serious. If early campaign reporting is any guide, the bad media habits that helped install the worst president ever in the White House haven?t changed a bit.You may not remember the presidential debate of Oct. 3, 2000, or how it was covered, but you should. It was one of the worst moments in an election marked by news media failure as serious, in its way, as the later failure to question Bush administration claims a...
Punish the Democrats and laugh at the wingers
2007-05-28 19:55:00 Today Paul Krugman reminds us of a couple of things in Trust and Betrayal.1. We can't trust George W. Bush. ?In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war.? That?s what President Bush said last year, in a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.Those were fine words, spoken by a man with less right to say them than any president in our nation?s history. For Mr. Bush took us to war not with reluctance, but with unseemly eagerness.2. We can't trust the Democrats who were given the majority to end the occupation of Iraq. Future historians will shake their heads over how easily America was misled into war. The warning signs, the indications that we had a rogue administration determined to use 9/11 as an excuse for war, were there, for those willing to see them, right from the beginning ? even before Mr. Bush began explicitly pushing for war with Iraq.In fact, the very first time Mr. Bush ...
When Lunatics No Longer Hold Sway
2007-05-28 06:43:00 Trust and BetrayalBy Paul KrugmanThe New York Times?In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war.? That?s what President Bush said last year, in a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.Those were fine words, spoken by a man with less right to say them than any president in our nation?s history. For Mr. Bush took us to war not with reluctance, but with unseemly eagerness.Now that war has turned into an epic disaster, in part because the war?s architects, whom we now know were warned about the risks, didn?t want to hear about them. Yet Congress seems powerless to stop it. How did it all go so wrong?Future historians will shake their heads over how easily America was misled into war. The warning signs, the indications that we had a rogue administration determined to use 9/11 as an excuse for war, were there, for those willing to see them, right from the beginning ? even before Mr. Bush ...
Good Intentions. Bad Consequences.
2007-05-25 09:44:00 Immigrants and PoliticsBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesA piece of advice for progressives trying to figure out where they stand on immigration reform: it?s the political economy, stupid. Analyzing the direct economic gains and losses from proposed reform isn?t enough. You also have to think about how the reform would affect the future political environment.To see what I mean ? and why the proposed immigration bill, despite good intentions, could well make things worse ? let?s take a look back at America?s last era of mass immigration.My own grandparents came to this country during that era, which ended with the imposition of severe immigration restrictions in the 1920s. Needless to say, I?m very glad they made it in before Congress slammed the door. And today?s would-be immigrants are just as deserving as Emma Lazarus?s ?huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.?Moreover, as supporters of immigrant rights rightly remind us, everything today?s immigrant-bashers say ? that immigrants...
The Krug Man Says:
2007-05-20 06:10:00 Don't Blame BushBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesI?ve been looking at the race for the Republican presidential nomination, and I?ve come to a disturbing conclusion: maybe we?ve all been too hard on President Bush.No, I haven?t lost my mind. Mr. Bush has degraded our government and undermined the rule of law; he has led us into strategic disaster and moral squalor.But the leading contenders for the Republican nomination have given us little reason to believe they would behave differently. Why should they? The principles Mr. Bush has betrayed are principles today?s G.O.P., dominated by movement conservatives, no longer honors. In fact, rank-and-file Republicans continue to approve strongly of Mr. Bush?s policies ? and the more un-American the policy, the more they support it.Now, Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney may have done a few things other Republicans wouldn?t. Their initial domestic surveillance program was apparently so lawless and unconstitutional that even John Ashcroft, approached ...
Divided Over Trade
2007-05-14 07:24:00 The Krug Man, as usual, provides a voice of reason and intelligence on Trade Policy. Excellent op ed.Divided Over TradeBy Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesNothing divides Democrats like international trade policy. That became clear last week, when the announcement of a deal on trade between Democratic leaders and the Bush administration caused many party activists to accuse the leadership of selling out.The furor subsided a bit as details about the deal emerged: the Democrats got significant concessions from the Bushies, while effectively giving a go-ahead to only two minor free trade agreements (Peru and Panama). But the Democrats remain sharply divided between those who believe that globalization is driving down the wages of many U.S. workers, and those who believe that making and honoring international trade agreements is an essential part of governing responsibly.What makes this divide so agonizing is that both sides are right.Fears that low-wage competition is driving down U.S. w...
For Whom the Closing Bell Tolls
2007-04-30 05:49:00 Another Economic Disconnect By Paul KrugmanThe New York TimesLast fall Edward Lazear, the Bush administration?s top economist, explained that what?s good for corporations is good for America. ?Profits,? he declared, ?provide the incentive for physical capital investment, and physical capital growth contributes to productivity growth. Thus profits are important not only for investors but also for the workers who benefit from the growth in productivity.?In other words, ask not for whom the closing bell tolls; it tolls for thee.Unfortunately, these days none of what Mr. Lazear said seems to be true. In the Bush years high profits haven?t led to high investment, and rising productivity hasn?t led to rising wages.The second of those two disconnects has gotten a lot of attention because of its political consequences. The administration and its allies whine that they aren?t getting credit for a great economy, but because wages have been stagnant ? the median worker?s earnings, adjusted for... |
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