N.Y. Times Peddling New Doomsday Scenario

Human Events Online ^ | 5-14-05 | Alan Reynolds

[FlyLow]

"The doomsday theme is seeping into the normally circumspect world of economics," notes New York Times writer Daniel Gross. Actually, the doomsday theme never leaves The New York Times for long. It just changes form.

In "The Perfect Storm That Could Drown the Economy," Gross claims, "increasingly, economists are prophesying that the American economy as a whole may be sailing into choppy waters." He finds several perpetually gloomy people to quote, including four refugees from the perpetually gloomy IMF. Yet as former Clinton adviser Jeff Frankel confesses, he and others "have been warning of this hard-landing scenario for more than 20 years.''

In this latest retelling, the 1983 hard-landing fable is at last going to turn into the long-predicted "perfect storm" the moment foreign central banks cut back on their purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds. "(If) Asian central banks decide that they already have too many dollars," wrote Paul Krugman, "(that) could easily turn our mild case of stagflation into something much more serious."

Gross hangs this same story on another Clintonian economist, Nouriel Roubini, who bravely "estimates that if China cut its rate of accumulation by ($100 billion a year), long-term interest rates in the United States could rise by 200 basis points (2 percentage points) over a few months and the value of the dollar would fall."

Since the publicly held federal debt exceeded $4.4 trillion at the end of last year, and even that figure is a small fraction of the global market for financial assets, no defensible economic model could possibly suggest U.S. or world interest rates would move perceptibly simply because of a $100 billion slowdown in one country's yearly accumulation of U.S. government securities.

[TADSLOS]

WE'RE DOOMED!

[Bahbah]

Facts don't matter when business news is really politics in disguise.

Krugman doesn't work very hard to disguise it. He has actually become laughable.

[TheForceOfOne]

The New York Times needs to take time and write their own obituary. The old grey lady is dead, she died from a large liberal growth on heart which ultimately consumed her.

[expatguy]

LOL PWNED

Nice one.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[Joe Boucher]

Damn, I was hopeful when I saw the headline that the N.Y. Times was doomed.
Be great to close this unAmerican rag down and put out to pasture every one of its employees.

[cloud8]

Didn't I just read that the federal govt is running a budget surplus? Lower the taxes, give people more disposable income, people buy stuff and employment rises. Voo-doo economics at work :-)

ps - nice tag line...can't we all just get along LOL

[Steely Tom]

What happened to the "superspike?"

(steely)

[Inge_CAV]

"Be great to close this unAmerican rag down and put out to pasture every one of its employees."

,,,,,And without a pension.

They can sell left-leaning pencils on street corners.....

[johnny7]

The NYTimes is running a story on 131 US mayors who support Kyoto. In actuality, Kyoto(if agreed to) would be the type of 'Doomsday-for-America' they're hoping for!

[Waco]

The NYT suckin-up to commies is the most important doomsday I am concerned about.

[kpp_kpp]

lets summarize:

if people stop spending/buying/making/using/consuming money the economy will collapse.

[sergeantdave]

I like doomsday stories. I haven't been doomed by the MSM for nearly two hours.

This week, for instance, I was doomed by global warming 18 times; eating salmon once; beached whales three times; Osama twice; beer three times; freezing two times; SUVs 4 times; capitalism 236 separate incidents; debt 5 times; and eating char-broiled steak once.

I'm thankful to be alive. Well, off to WalMart to buy my weekly roll of tin foil.