It often happens that flawed theories put into practice expose their internal inconsistencies for all to see before long. We now see this playing out in the case of Keynesian stimulus and the U.S. economy, and the stimulus defenders are at a loss. By any measure, the Keynesian debt-based stimulus pushed into the economy in recent years has been extraordinary. Typically prescribed in doses of from 1 to 2 percent of the economy, from 2008 to 2009 the federal budget deficit jumped by 6.7 percentage points, yet the unemployment rate …
In his latest New York Times column, Paul Krugman manages to make some useful observations before slipping into his usual role of distorting propagandist. His most important observation is in his title, “We’re Not Greece”. For that matter, we’re not Portugal or France, either, for all of which we can be thankful. Greece suffers from a quadruple whammy. Its fiscal policy is a disaster, with a debt-to-GDP ratio push rapidly toward 150 percent and beyond. Its political system is very shaky and its social fabric appears to be fraying judging …
The economic effects of prolonged unemployment insurance (UI) have become a controversial topic recently. Conservatives have pointed to a raft of economic studies to demonstrate that, in addition to the benefits they provide, extended UI benefits also come with an economic cost – lengthening the amount of time that those without jobs stay unemployed. Many liberals ridicule conservatives for suggesting this could happen. Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently called the notion “an insult to these millions of people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own.” If liberals …
The execution last week of a senior economics official in the North Korean government over a botched currency reform reminds us of that no parody of repressive government can fully capture the backwardness and evil of the North Korean regime. If any good can come of such a perversion of morality, it might be in a reminder to economists that their policy prescriptions can be matters of life or death, if not for themselves then most assuredly for the citizens of their countries. Recent calls by Paul Krugman and others …
Last week, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman tried to sell the merits of second “stimulus” by claiming education spending is being slashed, to the detriment of American students. He contends that education has suffered because of skepticism about the merits of government spending. Krugman writes: There’s no mystery about what’s going on: education is mainly the responsibility of state and local governments, which are in dire fiscal straits. Adequate federal aid could have made a big difference. But while some aid has been provided, it has made up only …
On page A27 of today’s New York Times, Paul Krugman is at it again. Spending trillions of dollars we don’t actually have is what saved us from disaster, but we need to spend more! More! More! Krugman has written the same thing so many times, he apparently doesn’t need to bother with facts, just assertions. In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Robert Barro and Charles Redlick did bother with facts, which happens to lead them to the exact opposite conclusion. But that isn’t the ugly part. The ugly part is that, …
Paul Krugman blasted opponents of cap and trade and The Heritage Foundation in his New York Times column today, saying: So where do the apocalyptic warnings about the cost of climate-change policy come from? Are the opponents of cap-and-trade relying on different studies that reach fundamentally different conclusions? No, not really. It’s true that last spring the Heritage Foundation put out a report claiming that Waxman-Markey would lead to huge job losses, but the study seems to have been so obviously absurd that I’ve hardly seen anyone cite it. Krugman …
The White House is losing the health care debate. Polls from National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal/NBC News, The Washington Post, Gallup, and Pew all show that the American people do not support President Barack Obama’s health care plan. The White House wants people to believe they are losing the health care debate because “scary … videos are starting to percolate on the internet” that are spreading “disinformation” about Obama’s health care plan. The White House is even encouraging Obama supporters to help them identify people spreading this “disinformation.” The …
Paul Krugman just can’t stop spreading misinformation about Medicare and health insurance. Today he writes: In the individual insurance market, where people buy insurance directly rather than getting it through their employers, so much money goes into underwriting and other expenses that only around 70 cents of each premium dollar actually goes to care. This is just plain deceptive. The latest government figures available, from 2007 (see Table 12), show that 87.8 cents of every private health insurance premium dollar went to personal health care bills. And that remaining 12.2 cents? …
Now that Al Franken has been seated in the Senate, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is now telling reporters he sees no need for the left to compromise on their demands for a government-run “public option” health care plan. Proponents of the public plan, like Schumer, believe government-run health care is needed “to keep the insurance companies honest,” because they believe private insurance companies have higher administrative costs than a government-run health care system would. The explanations for why liberals believe this are as numerous as they are erroneous: government is …
