Still Krugman After All These Years
[Posted by Karl]
Newsweek puts Paul Krugman on is cover as the Loyal Opposition to Pres. Obama, no doubt because Newsweek finds criticism from the Left to be the only possible loyal opposition. But this charming anecdote is tucked inside:
With dry humor, he once told a friend the story of attending an economic summit in Little Rock after Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992. As the friend recounted the story to NEWSWEEK, “Clinton asked Paul, ‘Can we have a balanced budget and health-care reform?’—essentially, can we have it all? And Paul said, ‘No, you have to be disciplined. You have to make choices.’ Then Paul says to me (deadpan), ‘That was the wrong answer.’ Then Clinton turns to Laura Tyson and asks the same questions, and she says, ‘Yes, it’s all possible, you have your cake and eat it too.’ And then [Paul] says, ‘That was the right answer’.” (Tyson became chairman of Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers; she did not respond to requests to comment.)
Left out of the Newsweek account is that Tyson is currently a member of the Pres. Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and is still churning out agitprop for the nonsensical notion that massive increases in spending on education and healthcare, combined with massive increases in taxes and regulation somehow do not explode the size of government. Moreover, Tyson is whining about the fact that no one is buying her claptrap:
“We don’t have governments around the world supporting the Obama administration and we don’t have Democrats supporting the Obama administration.”
So here we are, another turn of the 16-year cycle, with Krugman still on the outside, Tyson again on the inside, and we still can’t have it all. Reality bites, Ms. Tyson.
–Karl
And yet, after all this criticism, she still doesn’t begin to grasp why their arguments have merit.
Dmac (49b16c) — 3/29/2009 @ 7:57 amMy head spins trying to fathom just why these clowns are worshipped by so many on the left. Seriously, Krugman Nobel Prize for Economics??? I guess it helps to realize that many of the Prizes are political and a joke- Arafat and Carter Peace Prizes? Oh, yeah so was AGW scamster Algore.
So what is Tyson claim to fame? Ok, Shrillary was first lady with a bad memory for duplicitous political moves during Clinton administration. But how do people like Raines and Gorelick stay in the center of things when they are obviously bad for Americans? Big bonuses from Fanny and Freddy, gorelick wall between FBI and CIA not helping vis a vis 911 and so on. Back to Hill as SecState- god help us there too.
aoibhneas (0c6cfc) — 3/29/2009 @ 8:10 amObama may finally discredit leftist economics but the country may not survive it.
Mike K (2cf494) — 3/29/2009 @ 9:04 amDidn’t we just go through eight years of the Democrats combitching that Republican congressmen just rolled over for President Bush and not showing any independence? And when a few did, weren’t good “mavericks” like John McCain and Arlen Specter, who put the good of the country ahead of their loyalty to party — at least, until one of them ran for president?
So, now we have a Democratic senator who’s going all mavericky, and the Administration is combitching that he’s not rolling over for the president.
The next four years — please, Lord, hold it to just four! — may be miserable politically, but I think we can give our Democratic friends plenty of credit for ramping up the entertainment value of government.
The amused Dana (03e259) — 3/29/2009 @ 9:12 amaoibhneas: Laura D’Andrea Tyson was appointed during the Clinton Administration because Mrs Clinton wanted more women in positions of authority and Mr Clinton saw that she was a babe. Yeah, there was Donna Shalala, who barked at the moon, but she was a Friend of Hill. Janet Reno wasn’t exactly gorgeous, but she was the third choice for Attorney General, behind Zoë Baird, a real looker, and Kimba Wood, once picked as the Hottest Federal Judge by Underneath Their Robes.
The historian Dana (03e259) — 3/29/2009 @ 9:23 amDana – Don’t forget Madelin Albright and the utterly unforgettable Jocelyn Elders, who makes Joe Biden look good in comparison. I think Hillary had a thing about Bent Dick Bill appointing babes to important positions, playing with fire and all.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 3/29/2009 @ 9:31 amYes, Janet Reno wasn’t exactly gorgeous in the same way that The Pope isn’t exactly Jewish.
Official Internet Data Office (3df6eb) — 3/29/2009 @ 9:35 amKrugman’s early work on trade and exchange rates was very good. Since then he’s become an intellectually dishonest, politicized, barking moonbat whose work and conclusions cannot be trusted. It’s not uncommon to be able to take one of his current columns and find one reaching a completely opposite conclusion on the same issue from a few years earlier with the only difference being that the left currently supports the position in Krugman’s most recent column.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 3/29/2009 @ 9:38 amMr Rocks: Mrs Albright was a fairly late in the Administration appointment, well after the Lewinsky affair. At that point, appointing babes was O-U-T!
Dr Elders? Well, no one could explain Dr Elders when she was in office, so don’t expect me to be able to explain her now.
There are, of course, those people who are snide enough to suggest that Dr Elders was pontificating on teaching one particular subject because she couldn’t get sex any other way, but surely, surely! I would never be one of them.
The always kind and polite Dana (03e259) — 3/29/2009 @ 9:47 amNo one has mentioned the most disturbing news from that article…..someone has made a music video praising Krugman and asking why he isn’t in the administration.
Gahrie (9d1bb3) — 3/29/2009 @ 10:06 amThe always kind and polite Dana – Surgeon General Elders was also a big advocate of do it yourself secks.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 3/29/2009 @ 10:14 amPerhaps that is what you meant?
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 3/29/2009 @ 10:16 amno doubt because Newsweek finds criticism from the Left to be the only possible loyal opposition
To be fair, the guy recently did get a Nobel Prize (of course, big whoop—an honor handed out in Sweden by those who share the ideological sentiments of folks in, say, Hollywood voting for the Oscar). And opposition being voiced by, for example, blue-dog Democrats might not be as interesting in the eyes of the magazine’s staff for the same reason that instances of countervailing opinions from squishy Republicans (aka RINOs) towards George Bush didn’t seem as telling or symbolically dramatic.
Mark (411533) — 3/29/2009 @ 10:47 amMark – Krugman didn’t win the Nobel for his work as a N.Y. Times columnist. I think he won it for the work in his early career I referred to above.
Krugman has a tendency to firmly waffle with respect to Obama’s positions with his feet planted in midair. If currently opposed, merely wait until next week and you may see a revision in Krugman’s thinking which is more politically expedient for him. Hack and whore are words that are too kind to describe what Krugman has become. He also doesn’t like to be reminded that he was on Enron’s Board of Directors, I believe.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 3/29/2009 @ 11:00 am13
To be fair, the guy recently did get a Nobel Prize (of course, big whoop—an honor handed out in Sweden by those who share the ideological sentiments of folks in, say, Hollywood voting for the Oscar). …
They did give one to Milton Friedman.
James B. Shearer (5ce42c) — 3/29/2009 @ 11:10 am5. One might surely hope that O’Dumbo might find a place for such luminaries as Lani Guinier and Angela Davis in his administration. I’m sure the black lady judge whose name escapes me at the moment would be deemed a far right radical though. The single parent one whose early family roots were slaves. ok, Janice Rogers Brown.
Janet Reno was a wild child in Miami area. getting her tickets for DUI quashed and her outings with fellow dykes hushed up. Still I wonder if Bill Clinton would have craved her sensual talents. And does Hill’s sexy Muslim aide accompany her on sec-state trips abroad?
aoibhneas (0c6cfc) — 3/29/2009 @ 12:01 pm* Krugman was an adviser to Enron.
Official Internet Data Office (3df6eb) — 3/29/2009 @ 1:08 pm* Krugman served on the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan White House.
* Krugman did not win a Nobel Prize, but instead won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which was not established by Nobel’s will.
* The Sveriges Riksbank is the Swedish Central bank, the one which created the so-called “Swedish solution,” the Socialist cure for debt-crippled economies.
Mr Rocks: t’was indeed!
The succinct Dana (03e259) — 3/29/2009 @ 1:38 pmGreat story in this post, Karl. It manages to showcase the economic wishful thinking of Laura Tyson AND the enormous self-regard of Paul Krugman all in the same anecdote.
And daleyrocks is correct about Krugman’s Nobel/Sveriges Prize being based upon his study of trade in the early 90s. The irony of it is that Krugman, a liberal, essentially argued in favor of free trade (with some caveats) much to the chagrin of his fellow travelers on the left. Now we are seeing an administration that is probably the most hostile to free trade than any since the New Deal.
JVW (bff0a4) — 3/29/2009 @ 2:10 pmOnly Tyson could make a moonbat such as Krugman seem reasonable.
AD - RtR/OS (cdd210) — 3/29/2009 @ 3:52 pmYou really have to wonder about the critical thinking skills of people who take Laura d’Andrea Tyson,
Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, et al, seriously?
I have occasionally commented on persons having strong opinions far outsaide their field of expertise.I don’t know enough economics to know if Dr Krugman’s Prize (which isn’t a Nobel,by the by) is justified.Certainly,there have been ‘suspicious’ awards in the non science fields-some cited above-but that does not de certify Dr Krugman’s .My biggest complaint about him is his ability to be dishonest if it seems to help the cause.
Corwin (86943f) — 3/29/2009 @ 6:27 pmAnd ,as I wrote that,I thought of HRC’s great airport adventure,JOe Biden’s pseudo autobiography-and class rank,John Kerry’s -“seared,seared,as well as his phantom Boston Marathon,Robert Reich’s fake smoke filled room,etc.Maybe beeing honest is just thought as not being bright enough to lie by many Dems.
The left is certain that they can handle all those CDS contracts and don’t need DeSantis, et al.
Elders got to be Surgeon General after she saw to it that Bill’s mother was not prosecuted for a nurse anesthetist screwup that resulted in a death.
MIke K (2cf494) — 3/29/2009 @ 10:39 pm_________________________________
Krugman didn’t win the Nobel for his work as a N.Y. Times columnist. Comment by daleyrocks
Thanks for the clarification, which prompted me to do a quick search on and dig this up, from the NY Times:
Tyson is currently a member of the Pres. Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and is still churning out agitprop
I just opened up the link to Tyson’s WSJ op-ed piece, and this part of it, below, really caught my attention and pisses me off.
No one from the left had better dare claim the “let them eat cake” mentality is somehow exclusive to high-flying tycoons or laissez-faire conservatives. Not when the hubris and limousine-liberal arrogance of Laura Tyson is fully on display in this one comment from her:
Mark (411533) — 3/29/2009 @ 11:15 pm