Posted on 07/22/2011 4:17:04 AM PDT by blam
The Lesser Depression
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: July 21, 2011
These are interesting times — and I mean that in the worst way. Right now we’re looking at not one but two looming crises, either of which could produce a global disaster. In the United States, right-wing fanatics in Congress may block a necessary rise in the debt ceiling, potentially wreaking havoc in world financial markets. Meanwhile, if the plan just agreed to by European heads of state fails to calm markets, we could see falling dominoes all across southern Europe — which would also wreak havoc in world financial markets.
We can only hope that the politicians huddled in Washington and Brussels succeed in averting these threats. But here’s the thing: Even if we manage to avoid immediate catastrophe, the deals being struck on both sides of the Atlantic are almost guaranteed to make the broader economic slump worse.
In fact, policy makers seem determined to perpetuate what I’ve taken to calling the Lesser Depression, the prolonged era of high unemployment that began with the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and continues to this day, more than two years after the recession supposedly ended.
Let’s talk for a moment about why our economies are (still) so depressed.
(snip)
For those who know their 1930s history, this is all too familiar. If either of the current debt negotiations fails, we could be about to replay 1931, the global banking collapse that made the Great Depression great. But, if the negotiations succeed, we will be set to replay the great mistake of 1937: the premature turn to fiscal contraction that derailed economic recovery and ensured that the Depression would last until World War II finally provided the boost the economy needed.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Economic Policy: Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says the U.S. is in the “early stages of a third Great Depression.”
If he’s right, it’s only because American policymakers have been following his advice...”
IBD editorial
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/538727/201006281830/Krugmans-Depression.aspx
Sorry, I was only pointing out that the idiot from Princeton was wrong to say the Republicans, whom he calls “right-wing fanatics” have no plan.
It’s the Democrats who either don’t have a plan or who have a secret plan.
Does Krugman have a plan? First, what would it matter? Anybody can come up with a plan. But, in the real world, you have to work with others. As an entrepreneur, you have to sell your plan to investors. In politics, you have to fashion majority support for your plan.
Second, as you point out, Krugman’s plan is idiotic. I think it questions whether he has succumbed to mental illness. Have you seen him on PBS? He looks deranged. He is beyond opinionated and is arrogant and disrespectful of others. He uses his Nobel Prize in economics (for the implications of imperfect competition for international trade, which, by the way, I love) as a bludgeon, when other Nobel Prize winners have addressed the economics of deficit spending in ways that differ from his and roughly accord with the principles imbedded in the Republican plan.
Krugman just bought my old business....
Jim Bobway’s Currency Exchange
Beam him up, Scotty!
Or maybe this guy is in another galaxy and he needs to be beamed down.
Oh jeez, did you see that? The Mad Hatter just went through the room, the tooth fairy will come tonight to leave me lots of money and I have a bridge I’ll sell ya cheap.
Krugman = JournOlist = fraud
Love it. krugman describes the plan to quit borrowing, reduce our debt and strengthen our financial position to be the action of right wing fanatics.
So when krugman gets let go from the Moscow times, I would bet that he quits borrowing, reduces his debt and strengthens his personal financial position.
That would make krugman a right wing fanatic.
Pissin in the wind just gets you wet there nobel prize goofball.
Can I borrow a few thousand?
>>Consider that 12,500 in the market has the real value of about 9,000.<<
Thank you for the good news. I was figuring it was below 8k by now.
Why? You wanna buy a pack of gum?
;-)
I was hoping to take Momma out for dinner.
Then you need more.... 10,000 Zimbabwe dollars = one chicken leg.
Mortgage the house again. I’m getting tired of this.
And they are to blame for financial markets having concerns with our nations borrowing?
Don’t mortgage the house! Merely steal your neighbors wallet......it’s the “ Obama Way “
Is that what they mean by “sharing the wealth?”
Yeah.....or like when Huckleberry Finn “ borrowed” something ;-)
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