As an editor of a specialty medical journal, I would have rejected this type of analysis immediately as unscientific. Unfortunately, the propagandists will take hold of it and claim the Marxist is doing it all correctly. In a nutshell, comparing the economic behavior of the United States to any other country without controlling for a number of variables that make up the intrinsic features of each country (demographics, type of economy, products manufactured, etc) is ridiculous. Essentially, there is no appropriate control group. The other important point is the short term analysis says nothing of the long term pain of increased budgetary debt, which we can surmise accurately will be greatly catastrophic. Austerity is akin to painful and unpleasant chemotherapy for a cancer. The short term is bad, but the long term prognosis is better than simply feeding the cancer and letting the patient “feel good” for the next 6 months.
Well said, sir. Well said.
Krugman’s plan worked for say 6 months or so - at the cost of what? Borrowing and spending.
Now he is trying to cover up the true nature by fiddling with the debt/GDP ratio and trying to hide the actual debt load being carried by the United States.
This makes me furious. It’s one thing to trash the credit and reputation of America - which will take a long time to repair, quite another to lie to the people of the United States to make it difficult to uncover what is actually going on. This is the route to bankruptcy and disaster.