Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

When Do Deficits Matter? When there are Republican presidents, of course.
National Review ^ | January 9, 2017 7:32 PM | Kevin D. Williamson

Posted on 01/10/2017 2:34:28 AM PST by expat_panama

It has long been rumored that Paul Krugman does not write the New York Times column that appears under his name. I have no reason to believe that that is true, but I hope it is. There are not many situations in which the reputation of a winner of the Nobel prize and the John Bates Clark medal would be improved by an act of intellectual dishonesty, but this is one of them.

Like homelessness and military casualties, U.S. government deficits are an issue that bleep into visibility on the progressive radar almost exclusively during Republican presidencies. On October 23, 2016, Professor Krugman wrote that the “debt scolds should be ignored,”...

...What has changed, he says today, is that the unemployment numbers and wage figures suggest that we have returned to full employment, and hence the emergency measures he advocated earlier are no longer needed...

...If partisanship in the context of economic doctrine is something like a fever, then ordinary political partisanship is more like brain cancer. Which of course helps to explain the difference between Paul Krugman the economist and Paul Krugman the columnist.

Of course deficits matter. They mattered during the George W. Bush administration, they mattered during the Barack Obama administration... ...the deficit matters even if you believe, as Professor Krugman sometimes does, that deficit-financed federal spending programs are the right medicine in times of economic crisis.

There will be many occasions to consider deficit spending over the next several years, and much of that debate will happen in the context of a national-competitiveness debate of the kind that Professor Krugman criticized so trenchantly during the Clinton years. Paul Krugman might have contributed something useful to that debate, rather than spending the back half of his career as an upmarket Rosie O’Donnell.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: budget; economy; investing
This is what we're talking about:

A Growing Obama Econ. Means Deficits Matter Again  Paul Krugman, New York Times

As if nobody notices that he waited till all Hillary's recounts were finished.

1 posted on 01/10/2017 2:34:28 AM PST by expat_panama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: expat_panama

It’s so expected it’s laughable.

This was one of the reasons I voted for Trump. If anyone can get this debt going in reverse its’ him.

We will see.


2 posted on 01/10/2017 3:17:09 AM PST by CommieCutter ("Trump is god emperor and he will win." -- some hacker)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: expat_panama

That Krugman won a Nobel in the first place is an indicator that the Nobel Prize committee had become PC. Then Obama and now Dylan. Hey look, I like Bob, but really.

There are many topics I remember discussing at UHH, and other places, that seem to have gone un-noticed.

One pet peeve is that topics known as ‘dis-economy of scale’ or examinations of ‘inefficient consumption’ dealing with factors outside the energy sector; are not discussed.

For the problems this nation faces are obviously from mis-management. Mis-management is catch-all phrase for the activities that lead to inefficient operation such as stupidity or theft.

Government is a ‘dis-economy of scale’ from the start and promotes stupidity and theft.


3 posted on 01/10/2017 3:18:19 AM PST by honurider (no one is more indoctrinated then the indoctrinator)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: expat_panama

The homeless matter again too. The mainstream media have dusted off their eight-year dormant stories about homeless Americans (women and minorities hardest hit!).


4 posted on 01/10/2017 3:25:27 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: expat_panama

With Republican presidents, we also see large numbers of “homeless” stories from the MSM. Get ready to jerk your tears for the first time in 8 years.


5 posted on 01/10/2017 3:32:05 AM PST by Scooter100
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pollster1

ya beat me to it


6 posted on 01/10/2017 3:33:01 AM PST by Scooter100
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: honurider
That Krugman won a Nobel in the first place is an indicator that the Nobel Prize committee had become PC. Then Obama and now Dylan. Hey look, I like Bob, but really.

Obama won a "peace prize" (for no tangible reason whatsoever). Bob won the literature prize. Since most Nobel literature prizes go to some obscure author who wrote a piece of PC drek that no one outside of the Nobel literary committee ever heard of, I would argue that Bob's Nobel prize is more deserved than *many* of the past prizes. After all, many millions of people actually do listen to his music.

7 posted on 01/10/2017 3:38:44 AM PST by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: expat_panama

Deficits only matter to one party when the other party is in the White House. That’s true regardless of whether you’re talking about Republicans or Democrats.


8 posted on 01/10/2017 3:43:03 AM PST by DoodleDawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: exDemMom

Hello and good morning. Yes, I do like Bob and have listened, laughed and cried to his music for over 40 years. And many times I was just as loaded as he was.

I like to read, I do not own a tv (have not for over 25 yrs), I do not spend money or time on movies, music or sports.

On average, I read over 250 books a year of all kinds. I am not bragging here I actually feel that sometimes it is not good.
(Over 400 books in 1 yr is my record/I was incarcerated).

I also try to keep copies of as much of everything I read (sometimes things on the INTERNET are hard to keep, duh. It also mean I have lost thousands of books over the years)

Just as a note to my fanaticism with reading and research, there are times when I have re-read old material from different translators; for example an old translation of ‘Plato’s Republic’ and a modern day translation. (Wish I could read more languages better). The differences are often quite notable. Also, I read 2 different copies of Koran/Quran, let me tell u some weird stuff there) but I also observed this weirdness in most theological, religious or meta-physically oriented material I read.

Anyway point is from the ancients (Homer, Aeneid etc to many modern fictional & non-fictional writers of the present day-this includes many versions of the bible, etc) I try to stay informed. (For example I may never have seen an entire Clooney movie, but I know who the idiot is- I do not have a good opinion of most of Hollywood- I mean really ‘hedonism central’ giving out advice, lol)

Not picking on Bob, and of course it is just my opinion, but Bob was probably not the most Nobel worthy, and obscurity is often refreshing, but also, often not.

Well in closing let me say, I will agree, Bob deserved his Noble way more then Obama or Krugman deserved theirs.


9 posted on 01/10/2017 4:38:09 AM PST by honurider (no one is more indoctrinated then the indoctrinator)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: expat_panama

I’m surprised that they aren’t blaming Trump for the deficits before he’s even inaugurated.


10 posted on 01/10/2017 4:47:40 AM PST by Daveinyork
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: honurider

I’m jealous.. too much work and not enough time to read. TV is and has always been too noisy and too mind numbing. I didn’t let my kids watch TV until they could read beginners books. They are grown and both love to read. Nothing like some sunshine and a couple of good books. I am turning my old iPad into a reader, so many books available online only. Of course I love The Book, it’s like a river for my soul. Audible is my go when I have to get things done.


11 posted on 01/10/2017 5:00:56 AM PST by momincombatboots (Pray for Sky, 20, two gunshots to abdomen, college student, hostess, easy prey n transformed US)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Scooter100

I occasionally listen to NPR, which already did their first homeless story in eight years.


12 posted on 01/10/2017 5:06:57 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: expat_panama

Krugman is a cretin.


13 posted on 01/10/2017 5:14:02 AM PST by sauropod (Beware the fury of a patient man. I've lost my patience!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: momincombatboots

Good Morning.

Yes I am about reading, and currently with some health issues, I got lots of time, that and I am watching my infant grandchild. She is about 16 months and she already recognizes many words and numbers (ok, ABC and 123, but its a start- :-)

I got turned on to a Kindle a few months ago before that I was ‘hardcore’, had to be bound books or just was not real. I am over that now, LOL.

Yes, reading is freedom. Sometimes it takes practice to experience it. Reading is. It happens when an excellent writer has grabbed your imagination, or you have become immersed in the imagination of the authors that use your mind as a color filled canvas. To me writing is the greatest of the arts and of most benefit to the end-user.

Oh well wordy have a good day.


14 posted on 01/10/2017 5:21:11 AM PST by honurider (no one is more indoctrinated then the indoctrinator)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Daveinyork
...surprised that they aren’t blaming Trump for the deficits...

We know they will tho.  Remember Obama saying that GW was "unpatriotic for adding $4T to the debt, and then he goes and adds $9T!

 

Obama called Bush "UNPATRIOTIC"


15 posted on 01/10/2017 5:43:02 AM PST by expat_panama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: expat_panama

The Free Traitors™ told me just yesterday deficits don’t matter.


16 posted on 01/10/2017 5:45:12 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: expat_panama
Not just debt. All of a sudden:

Of course they'll keep beating the dead horse of global warming,


(*) They'll have to be quick on this one, un-doctoring the numbers, because President-elect Trump's economy will actually take off for real
17 posted on 01/10/2017 5:52:22 AM PST by ThunderSleeps (Stop obama now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All; anyone; everyone
central_va: just yesterday deficits don’t matter.

He's talking about Worrying About the ‘Trade Deficit’ Is Absurd to the Nth Degree.  Does anyone here have the time and energy to explain how a deficit is different when the word's used for the Fed budget, the Trade balance, sports ("came back from a 3–0 deficit") or in his case, mental health ("deficits in speech comprehension").

18 posted on 01/10/2017 6:31:16 AM PST by expat_panama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Pollster1
"The homeless matter again too. The mainstream media have dusted off their eight-year dormant stories about homeless Americans (women and minorities hardest hit!)."

The Seattle-area press has been covering local homelessness during the Obama years because it has been a growing problem. However, they have never blamed either Obama or local policies for it, but have almost treated it as an unpleasant fact of nature.
19 posted on 01/10/2017 8:13:56 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson