Perhaps the sky is green, the ocean is orange with pink polka-dots and the chairs all clap as he approaches the podium. Paul Krugman lives in another world.
There are zombies in Krugman’s world and ‘they are us’. Krugman’s podium is the NY Times where he writes Op-Ed articles like Monday’s When Zombies Win. Reflecting on the mid-term elections he asks “How did that happen?” It is not a rhetorical question. He truly doesn’t know. Where in the world has…excuse me, where out of the world has he been? In the bubble, of course in a self imposed exile shielded from alternative thought.
“Free market fundamentalists have been wrong about everything.” Everything, Paul? If everything is wrong, then the only alternative would be socialism, wouldn’t it?
“The Obama stimulus – which was about 40% tax cuts, ” Forty percent tax cuts? Were did that come from? The green sky perhaps.
“Clinton …raised taxes and… presided over spectacular job growth .” You got that right, but I would have liked it better if you had said “presided over spectacular job growth and then he raised taxes”, for that was the order in which they occurred. You also might have added that Clinton inherited a growing economy from Bush the senior, then presided over the dot com bubble, and handed the bust to Bush the junior along with a rapidly collapsing economy.
“Bush… cut taxes and presided over anemic growth even before the crisis.” Which crisis, Paul? I presume you mean 911. Facts are right again, but I think you are connecting the cart to the wrong end of the horse. The order was (1) anemic growth – as we said, inherited from Clinton, (2) tax cuts – yes, to stimulate the economy when it was poor, (3) the crisis – an incipient recovery cut off at the knees by 19 Islamists, 3 airplanes and 6 pilots with slit throats.
Do you know what came next, Paul? It was a strong economy, nearly 4% annual growth and a jobless rate that fell to 4.4%. And then clipped at the knees again, the mortgage crisis. Who brought that about? Space doesn’t allow explaining that here, but you can read about it here and here. It wasn’t George Bush.
Dear reader and fellow zombie, I haven’t even covered the first four paragraphs. Let’s skip the rest and go straight to the end. Krugman does not like the tax deal Obama just made with the enemy. He says “We all understand the need to deal with one’s political enemies. But it’s one thing to make deals to advance your goals; it’s another to open the door to zombie ideas. When you do that, the zombies end up eating your brain — and quite possibly your economy too”.
Definitions;
Zombie – a soulless body in the Voodoo cult of Haiti
Enemy – any Republican
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