New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman has a knack for propping up President Joe Biden’s atrocious economy at the expense of making himself look foolish.
Krugman belched up another word salad worth 846 words with a blaring headline: “How Democrats Can Fight This G.O.P.” After haranguing Republicans for supposedly not having “policy ideas,” Krugman bleated that a GOP-controlled House of Representatives with a narrow majority will be more “destructive” in part because the “economic environment, which was a headwind for Democrats this year, will probably (although obviously not certainly) begin to look better heading into 2024.” Inflation, praised Krugman, “seems set to fall substantially.” It’s unclear given Krugman’s abysmal track record on inflation under Biden why he’s arguing like he has any serious authority on the subject.
Barron’s magazine reported Nov. 11 that historical trends suggest that “when year-over-year inflation rises above 8%, as has happened with the CPI this year, it doesn’t recede quickly but tends to accelerate 70% of the time.” The outlet’s story was headlined: “Inflation Isn’t Going Anywhere. History Says It Could Take a Decade to Get Back to Normal.” This context was apparently lost on Krugman. His latest drivel read like he psyched himself into a state of denial. He claimed Republicans will “wreak as much havoc as they can” and “undermine what might otherwise look like successful governance by the Biden administration.” Yikes. [Emphasis added.]
Krugman’s distorted view of Democrats sticking it to the GOP was nothing short of comical. Krugman claimed Democrats should “crazyproof” policy by — wait for it — “raising the debt limit high enough that it won’t be a problem and locking in sufficient aid for Ukraine to get through the many months of war that surely lie ahead.” In Krugman’s view, “Democrats would be, well, crazy not to do these things as soon as possible.” Uh, what? The U.S. economic situation after nearly two years of Biden’s leadership is so bad that the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development is reportedly estimating U.S GDP growth to only reach an anemic 0.5 percent next year, and only 1 percent in 2024.
Krugman’s solution for Democrats was to keep the government’s spending obsession — which helped stimulate the inflation crisis to begin with — going like clockwork. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts stated in an op-ed ripping liberal elites on the debt ceiling that “with the Federal Reserve having ‘bought’ nearly all of the debt from Congress’s new spending — that is, just printed more money like someone cheating at ‘Monopoly’ — Biden’s only fiscal plan is … more spending!”
But for Krugman, it is the GOP who “won’t help govern America. It will, in fact, almost surely do what it can to undermine governance.” The Democrats, cried Krugman, “need to do whatever they can both to thwart political sabotage and to make the would-be saboteurs pay a price.”
This is the same Krugman who gave three rules to supposedly guide “Bidenomics” prior to Biden’s 2021 inauguration that ended up imploding in 2022. Two of those “Rules” need no explanation: “Rule #1: Don’t doubt the power of government to help.” “Rule #3: Don’t worry about inflation.” Just over a year into the Biden presidency, the economy would be hit with a 40-year high inflation crisis that Krugman claimed was “transitory” for months, an energy crisis, a debt crisis, a housing recession, supply chain disruptions and more. But in the face of these issues, Krugman still insisted in September that the so-called “Biden Boom” was great for U.S. workers “whether they know it or not.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact The New York Times at 800-698-4637 and demand it continue to distance itself from Krugman’s awful inflation predictions.
