How Not to Have a Putin Recession

New York Times ^ | March 14, 2022 | PAUL KRUGMAN

[conservative98]

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House minority leader, said something cynical and transparently dishonest the other day. To be fair, that’s sort of an evergreen remark; you could have said the same thing about him just about any week over the past few years. But this particular statement seemed important, because it involved a lie that has a direct bearing on how America will respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Here’s what McCarthy tweeted: “These are not Putin gas prices. They are President Biden gas prices.”

Now, that’s just false. You can argue about how much responsibility Biden’s policies bear for inflation in other parts of the economy, but the rising price of gasoline reflects the rising world price of crude oil, which hasn’t been significantly affected by anything Biden has done. And soaring crude prices have caused prices at the pump to surge in nations around the world, indeed by roughly the same amount. That is, these really are Putin gas prices.

[kiryandil]

23 bucks a barrel

[old curmudgeon]

I have found that the worst liars call everyone else a liar.

[Chewbarkah]

Krugman provides clarity whenever he speaks, since we can rest assured that the opposite is true.

[griswold3]

What really ticks me off with this “Expert Class” is they think we’re stupid.