Paul Krugman: The President Surrenders

The New York Times ^ | July 31, 2011 | Paul Krugman

[2ndDivisionVet]

A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong.

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

Start with the economics. We currently have a deeply depressed economy. We will almost certainly continue to have a depressed economy all through next year. And we will probably have a depressed economy through 2013 as well, if not beyond.

The worst thing you can do in these circumstances is slash government spending, since that will depress the economy even further. Pay no attention to those who invoke the confidence fairy, claiming that tough action on the budget will reassure businesses and consumers, leading them to spend more. It doesn’t work that way, a fact confirmed by many studies of the historical record.

Indeed, slashing spending while the economy is depressed won’t even help the budget situation much, and might well make it worse.....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Here’s where I’d be if I had the funds to move:

http://www.LivingInThePhilippines.com

[lawnguy]

It amazes me how obtuse you have to be to write for that rag..

[Rome2000]

He’s pretty lucky

Not too many jobs out there for professional shitheads.

[DoughtyOne]

Does it have to be either or?

How about both.

[Gator113]

My FRiend, so would I.............. so would I.

[going hot]

The man is effin nuts.screw him and his friends, the whole lot of em.

[Ditter]

Have you been to the Philippines? My neighbor goes there on business and I can't remember what he said about it but it wasn't very good. You can't drink the water or it is not safe for you to travel around, it was something very negative. I'll ask him.

[2ndDivisionVet]

There are 7,107 islands there, so I would think it’d be hard to generalize.

[exDemMom]

The cat, at least, looks intelligent. It would probably do a better job writing columns, too.

[Absolutely Nobama]

I think I made more sense after my stroke. Paul Krugman has sunk to another, illogical low.

[Tennessean4Bush]

lol! you hate me a new keyboard. that is the funniest post I have read.

[Ditter]

My neighbor is a consultant for a number of major corporations. He would be going to the major population areas I am guessing.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

The DuFus will be very entertaining this week. So I guess there’s that.

[GeronL]

Welcome to Opposite world.

The left got everything it wanted/

especially the debt commission thats going to blackmail the GOP into cutting defense or raising taxes. If this passes they will be forced to make a choice and then get bludgeoned for it.

WHy would the GOP vote to blackmail themselves?

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

I’d consider something like that too but dialysis is a limited commodity in this world.

[GeronL]

Of course it is.

[kittymyrib]

If we need to have a Communist planned economy, as Krugman hankers for, we need to have the Chinese run it. We certainly don’t want the glittering jewels of ignorance such as B. Obama,Sheila Jackson Lee and Maxine Waters in charge.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Dialysis Centers

Capitol Medical Center
Sct. Magbanua St. cor. Panay Ave., Quezon City
Phone 928-1571

Chinese General Hospital
236 Blumentritt St. Sta Cruz, Manila
Phone 743-6366

Makati Medical Center
2 Amorsolo St. Legaspi Village, Makati City
Phone 815-9911
Website http://www.makatimed.ph

National Kidney & Transplant Institute
East Ave, Diliman, Quezon City
Phone 924-3601

Nephro Systems Dialysis Centre
G/F, Eastgate Ctr, 169 Edsa, Mandaluyong City
Phone 531-5344

Nephrology Center of Manila
G/F Ruby Ann Bldg.
911 San Andres cor. L Guinto St.
Malate, Manila
Phone 536-5108

St. Lukes Medical Center
279 E Rodriguez Sr. Blvd, Quezon City
Phone 723-0101
Website http://www.stluke.com.ph

The Medical City
San Miguel Ave. cor. Lourdes Road
Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City
Phone 631-8626

http://www.rxpinoy.com/ondir/diHML/dialysis.html

Other links:

http://www.health-tourism.com/dialysis/philippines/

http://www.philmedtourism.com/default

[BobP]

The nation is presently running deficits of $1,600 billion a year. With the proposed ‘cuts’ of the compromise that still leaves $1,300 to $1,500 billion added to the debt every year. Exponential math tells me we are fast approaching the event horizon.....

--------------------------

Spot on yadent.

Welcome to the Obamanation!

His 'leadership' style is classic liberalism: No vision + utter incompetence = total failure

We said; cut, cut, cut. But it looks like we got; spend, spend, spend. A hamburger today for payment later.

So Obama's economy continues on a downward track. Once you go over a cliff you cannot stop half way down, and the DeathCare bill that he and Nancy put in place might finish it off.

What the Tea Party wants is what most Americans want - fiscal sanity. I don't think it is possible for this country to have a more sorry bunch of losers running the show.

 An arrogant Marxist was spending
 Trillions of bucks without comprehending.
 The piss-stream media concurred
 Without saying a negative word
 For the Republic they thought was ending.

The Gross Domestic Product, Second Quarter 2011 (Advance Estimate) is reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis at 1.3% (as of 8:30 A.M. EDT, Friday, July 29, 2011). If they tell us we had 1.3% growth, it really means we had no growth or negative growth.

2011 Q1 GDP was revised down from 1.9% to 0.4%. So in the first quarter, real GDP increased 0.4 percent. We're economically frozen as a nation with this jackwagon president in office. We have an economy that lags behind Canada and Mexico!

Egan-Jones, the only really independent and credible ratings agency, downgraded the U.S. from AAA to AA+.

S&P, Moodys and Fitch -- are the best ratings money can buy. They all receive money from the companies they give ratings on. They failed to lower ratings on any financial institution during the financial meltdown until the day most of them filed for bankruptcy. Downgrades = no more juicy fees. They don't downgrade the gov't because the managers and owners are all Northeast Ivy League Liberals and help bankroll fools like Schumer, Durban, Kerry, and Frank. Read Charlie Gasparino's book 'The Sellout' that names the names and the firms involved in aiding and abetting the downfall of the Republic.

  

[Sea Parrot]

All those green shoots did pop up everywhere, but turned out they were all toxic weeds.