Or even pull them on, amirite? Yeah, Paul Krugman, and a lot of other wise guys, are making fun of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s one-page nonexplanation of why the Trump Administration’s handout to the rich won’t cost Uncle Sam money—the supposed executive summary of a nonexistent “study” compiled, according to Steve, by the combined labor…
Tag: Paul Krugman
Ed Rogers, Hustler Without a Hustle, Politique Without a Party
If you had asked me, six months ago, to come up with a name for right-wing K Street cowboy/honcho Ed Rogers, I might have chosen “Smarmy McSmarmface”, or something, well, equally smarmy. But today I think I’d have to go with “Sad Little Man”, which isn’t really a name but does capture the fact that…
The enemy within—within the White House
Paul Krugman nailed it: “When the Fire Comes”. So did the Washington Post: “Trump paints a picture of a dystopian America that doesn’t exist”. President Trump is cranking up the volume in the anticipation of the next terrorist attack, or the next police shooting1, in order to announce that chaos reigns, that the gloves are…
Passing the buck: Smith to DeLong to Krugman
Writing in Bloomberg View, Noah Smith offers Four Ways to Help the Midwest, prompting Brad DeLong to go off on a bit of a tangent, musing about “Regional Policy and Distributional Policy in a World Where People Want to Ignore the Value and Contribution of Knowledge- and Network-Based Increasing Returns” (aka “the Human Condition”), causing…
Paul and the Europeans
Paul Krugman has explained, several times that he is a very reluctant, though thoroughly convinced anti-Brexit kind of guy. Why so reluctant? Because of the “sad reality” that the EU has become: “The so-called European project began more than 60 years ago, and for many years it was a tremendous force for good. It didn’t…
Getting to Denmark: Turn left at the light, and read your Bible!
Francis Fukuyama, who did a pretty good job writing the history of the world from 10,000 BC to 1789 in his book The Origins of Political Order, and a not so great job writing its history from 1789 to the present in Political Order and Political Decay1, frequently talks about “getting to Denmark”—enjoying the benefits…
The Disillusioning of the Left
Lefty standups Bill Maher and Lewis Black and lefty economist Paul Krugman all have shocking news from the lands of universal health care: The trains in Europe are as bad as they are here! Seriously, we’re talking Amtrak bad! Whatever happened to those magical trains that always seemed to be going nonstop from wherever you…
Chait doubles to left
In the past, I’ve used Jonathan Chait as my go-to doesn’t get it liberal* but thanks to liberal godhead Jon Stewart, Jonny C has been on a roll. Last week, Chait pointed out that Stewart’s efforts to enlighten and entertain are somewhat hampered by the fact that he doesn’t know anything about economics. In fact,…
Paul Krugman, Meditating Meta Modelly, Misses the Point Tangentally
A few days back, Nobel Paul Krugman, rapping on the modalities of modeling, took a side slap at conservative economists who argue that “America could only give workers decent living standards when it didn’t face competition.” If you follow the links, and take Paul literally—not always a wise thing to do—you’ll find that he’s saying…
Krugman, the gift that keeps on giving
Big Paul waxes bitchy in his blog today. “On my way to teach, this morning: ‘Vote for the hero and the hottie.’ Yes, it was on a pickup truck.” Yes, it was on a pickup truck and, yes, the driver was a massive douchebag with a beard, with a Nobel prize duct-taped to the dashboard….