I am sure many bytes are being “spilled” to analyze and comment on Krugman’s latest outburst or peacocking or whatever you wish to call it. Read the comments. Remember that all of those folks think you should get into the community hot-tub with them. A few points:
In the meantime, I’ll go back to thinking about how to start a business, and the Krugtron can remind me why regulations such as requiring me to have a license to become a tour guide, are “so obviously right” and that we need more of them to spur growth.
I would love to reply to Krugman’s post. Unfortunately, with all those words, he failed to say a single thing. I think this maybe the same way Hayek felt when he didn’t provide an intellectual reply to Keynes academic theories.
So instead I propose to play a new game. It is called “Who said it?”
“There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million can diagnose.”
Kudos to anyone who figures it out. It requires the very same in-depth copy/pasting skills that produced the stomach-holdingly hilarious images of Ron Paul on top of a cartoon character.
1. Baptists and Bootleggers. Bootleggers love the red tape so much. The only saving grace is that the government is so incompetent that cannot enforce any rules. So that red tape is really just an obstacle to honest people. But the system isn’t really designed for them anyways.
2. WC please run for office. Please (You will only get my vote if you still have the beard though) Matter of fact, anyone reading this site, just try it. Maybe in your local town. I don’t know what else could work.
3. This is the “Age of Austerity” because austerity is a fun word that sounds mean and sophisticated and is very effective in producing an emotional reaction that will preserve the power position and prestige of those with powerful and prestigious positions.
4. No. No one does that anymore.
5. The models forecast that we will continue to lower rates until they are -10%. -10% is the minimum because the chart doesn’t go lower. Yet. Everyone probably thinks I am kidding.
6. We just gnash our teeth. Grrrr.
Not long ago, if you went on a Holland America cruise, not only were you restricted to CNN, but also you got in your cabin mail the New York Times digest, which included columns written by Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman. And you got Chris Matthews, too. Talk about getting away from it all — this was like being on a different planet, an alternative universe, which brings us to professor Krugman.
I suppose WC has to read this stuff, along with his Monday dose from the NBER, and I am thankful that he gives me mountains of meat to chew on, which is a hell of a lot better than keeping up with the op Ed page of the NYT.
Professor Krugman above all is a progressive socialist, maybe a closet Communist. He thinks he and his friends are smarter than we, and are able to deliver justice. Not liberty, but justice. Right now he has the power to persuade Our Leader to run the country right down the drain.