<<< Date Index >>>     <<< Thread Index >>>

[IP] more on ANY OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS djf Krugman: Economic Crisis a Question of When, Not If





Begin forwarded message:

From: Aaron Dickey <ald@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 24, 2004 10:31:42 AM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] ANY OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS djf Krugman: Economic Crisis a Question of When, Not If

Economist Don Luskin posted this response to Krugman's interview on his blog:

<http://www.poorandstupid.com/ 2004_11_21_chronArchive.asp#110121857947789499>

KRUGMAN SPIDERHOLE WATCH: Paul Krugman has stopped writing his Times column through the end of the year, in shock and awe after the election. But reporters manage to find him in his secure and undisclosed location, and he keeps taking their calls. And he's up to all his old tricks. From an interview with Reuters yesterday:

[snip]
The most immediate worry for Krugman is that Bush will simultaneously push through more tax cuts and try to privatize social security, ignoring a chorus of economic thinkers who caution against such measures.

"If you go back and you look at the sources of the blow-up of Argentine debt during the 1990s, one little-appreciated thing is that social security privatization was a important source of that expansion of debt," said Krugman.
[snip]

What Krugman never mentions is that in all his own writings on Argentina's crisis, he himself was one of a chorus of economic thinkers who never even so much as mentioned the matter of social security. For that matter, he never particularly emphasized that Argentina's debt was an issue. For Krugman, a currency specialist, it was all about Argentina's rigid "currency board" mechanism (well, if all you have is a hammer, the world is a nail). But now Krugman doesn't care about currencies so much any more. Social Security reform is on the docket -- so now that's what Argentina's problems were all about.

Thanks to reader Jill Olson for the link.

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/