Posted on 11/14/2009 5:08:13 AM PST by reaganaut1
"HE SEEMS TO SPEND 10 MINUTES writing his columns," observes Columbia Business School Professor Charles Calomiris, "and he makes up his facts as he goes along." The object of the professor's low opinion is [NYT] columnist Paul Krugman.
Three years ago, I published a book called Econospinning, with several chapters devoted to Krugman's gaffes. I guess that prompted the Nobel committee to give him the prize, thereby magnifying his enormous influence. So perhaps a brief update on Krugmania is in order.
No, his coverage isn't always misleading or misinformed. But let's say an expert in science were to tell me that the articles in some science magazine I subscribe to were wrong half the time. I'd have to cancel my subscription, since I wouldn't know which half. Similarly, Krugman's legions of fans don't have the time or background to tell which half from which.
As an example of the horrendous half, take Krugman's toxic contributions to a crucial economic issue of our time, the causes of the financial meltdown.
Going back at least as far as 2002, my colleague Jonathan Laing has been informing Barron's readers about the role played by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As Prof. Calomiris summarizes the story in a recent paper he co-wrote, Fannie and Freddie "sold out the taxpayers by taking huge risks on substandard mortgages...and in the process...promoted a risky subprime-mortgage binge in the United States that caused a worldwide financial crisis."
Against those quite defensible facts, consider Krugman's fabrications. In a Times column last year, he told his readers that "Fannie and Freddie had nothing to do with the explosion of high-risk lending...[T]hey didn't do any subprime lending because they can't...by law" ("Fannie, Freddie and You," July 14, 2008). As Calomiris points out, not a word in that statement is true.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.barrons.com ...
Paul Krugman is the Josef Goebbels of our time. The NYT censors the comments to his propaganda columns, filtering out most that criticize him and highlighting the most obvious droolers. Typeical “Of, Prof Krugman , excellent column, you’ve done it again. blah blah”. He’s a big glass of Kool Aid for the lib-nazis.
Krugman is a repellent little toad...
I get a sense that this is Krugman’s economic plan and that he will go down with his ship next year. Who will listen to the little job killer when there are no jobs, just jobs summits?
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