The Fake Crisis (Rolling Stone mag interviews Paul Krugman)

Rolling Stone ^ | Jan 13, 2005 | ERIC BATES

[t_skoz]

I decided to look at the Rolling Stone website today for a laugh, remembering that the last 3 times I picked up that rag in the past 3 years I felt like I wanted to barf. Do they even do music reviews any more? They're giving Socialist Workers Weekly a run for their money!

[dirtboy]

But if the trust fund does run out, the government would have to raise taxes or cut benefits, or some combination of both, to keep Social Security solvent.

Yes, if the trust fund is ever depleted, then something will have to be done.

Uh, Krugman, in order to redeem the bonds in the trust fund, the government will have to raise taxes or borrow more money. What a weasel.

[arawlin2]

Well, imagine the absurdity of making government smaller. I'd like to go back to the days of silent Cal, Rolling Stone Magazine

[Tax-chick]

These people are all such liars! Two workers for each retiree, around 2020, means much higher taxes and/or massive debt and/or millions of tax-paying immigrants - or the system simply crashes. They can do all the accounting finagles they want, but you can't get payroll taxes out of workers who weren't born.

[t_skoz]

not really a R&R ping so much as a mass stupidity and Kool-Aid Ping!

Rock and Roll PING! email Weegee to get on/off this list (or grab it yourself to PING the rest)

OH YEAH!

[Rodney King]

Prior to Bush being president there are a bunch of Krugman quotes where he says that social security is a crisis.

[t_skoz]

"At his tree-shaded home in Princeton, New Jersey, Krugman took a break from working on a new economics textbook to explain why the crisis is phony..."

I feel sorry for the poor bastards who have to read this guy's textbook!

"We've secretly switched the text of Krudman's ramblings with Freidrich Hayek's Road To Serfdom, let's see if the students notice!"

[Semper Paratus]

Why didn't Rolling Stone front cover Kerry like they did Al Gore with the caption: "I got wood!"

[Tax-chick]

LOL!

[CaptRon]

My memory is not what it used to be, but I seem to recall that not too many years ago the lefties were throwing the word 'crisis' around in reference to Social Security the way they throw the word 'liar' around today.

[rockrr]

Didn't they used to be a band?


/sarc

[bt-99]

"medical costs keep on rising, because doctors keep on figuring out new stuff to do -- procedures that didn't exist ten or twenty years ago. " I guess Krugman thinks we should stop this too.
Its too bad that a "noted" economist doesn't even take the time to read the trustees report on social security before spouting off about it. Seems the numbers I read in the report and the ones he is quoting are different.

[Congressman Billybob]

No, the crisis is not fake. Krugman is a fake. He has real degrees, but as an economist he is a fake. He has a real column in the New York Times, but as a political commentator, he is a fake.

Rolling Stone may be useful as a commentator on music and related culture. But when it comes to commenting on the real world, Rolling Stone is also a fake, as witness this breathless article that takes Krugman as legitimate.

Did I miss anything?

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest, "Social Security, AARP and Coots"

[Choose Ye This Day]

"Crisis? What crisis?"

[Choose Ye This Day]

The best way to contain those costs is to go to a single-payer system, one in which the government insures everyone. That would probably cut the cost of health care by at least twenty-five percent.

Yeah. Government is so effective, efficient, and frugal. This guy's head isn't in the sand, it's in a major orifice.

[dsc]

"We've secretly switched the text of Krudman's ramblings with Freidrich Hayek's Road To Serfdom, let's see if the students notice!"

Isn't it a felony to mention Hayek on a college campus these days?

I think the last time I really wanted to bust somebody in the mouth was also the last time I mentioned Hayek to somebody who claimed to be well educated in economics.

Bloody fool still thinks Keynes was right, even after watching his policies fail again and again in Japan, two or three times a year for the past 17 years.

I mean, how many times does a theory have to fail--and fail every time its tried--before a true believer gives up on it?

[Jhensy]

Rolling Stone may be useful as a commentator on music and related culture.

No, it's even worse at that.

[junaid]

Help me please! This article was such a crock. I just about ripped it to shreds when I first read it. But I think the librarian would have had a fit.

[Wristpin]

Terrorism was never a crisis either...

[Choose Ye This Day]

"Al Qaeda? What Al Qaeda? Pass me another slice of pepperoni, Monica."