Paul Krugman

I would love to see Obama approach Paul Krugman, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient in economy, and offer him an advisory position to the administration. Here's part of Krugman's latest:

Right now, many commentators are urging Mr. Obama to think small. Some make the case on political grounds: America, they say, is still a conservative country, and voters will punish Democrats if they move to the left. Others say that the financial and economic crisis leaves no room for action on, say, health care reform.

Let’s hope that Mr. Obama has the good sense to ignore this advice.

It took America a dangerously long time to learn. We saw the failure of Reagenomics affect us when we went into a recession in the early 90's. It took Bill Clinton to turn that around. George Bush was given an economy on the road of greatness and he destroyed that. The Republican ideals of fiscal responsibility are irresponsible.

It's time for a change, and that's what America wants. The Republicans still want us to believe this is a center of right nation - it's not. They have seen a massive repudiation of their ideals this past week, so instead of embracing the will of the people and looking at ways to change their own party platform, they choose to lie to the American people. If Republicans ever want a glimmer of hope of being significant again, they need to listen to the American people.

NYT's columnist and Princeton economic professor Paul Krugman wins the Nobel prize in economics.

Paul Krugman has looked at the leaked plan for the financial bail out and he is saying "no deal" to it. Basically the plan doesn't give the taxpayers anything in return. According to his assessment it appears that the feds are trying to scare Congress into giving the money without any explanation of how it will work. In other words - we support dangerous decisions made in the financial markets with no security of our own. Good job Bushy!

First the wrong:

On the Democratic side, it's somewhat disappointing that Barack Obama, whose campaign has understandably made a point of contrasting his early opposition to the Iraq war with Hillary Clinton's initial support, has tried to score a twofer by suggesting that the war, in addition to all its other costs, is responsible for our economic troubles.

The war is indeed a grotesque waste of resources, which will place huge long-run burdens on the American public. But it's just wrong to blame the war for our current economic mess: in the short run, wartime spending actually stimulates the economy. Remember, the lowest unemployment rate America has experienced over the last half-century came at the height of the Vietnam War.

Krugman would be right on this, if it was during the Vietnam war. He seems to forget that we now have this new "global economy". Most of our bullets are made in Israel, and now we got our planes being made in Europe. War doesn't benefit our economy the same way it used to. Basically we have outsourced the "benefits of war" to other nations.