Joe Scarborough's False Equivalence on Krugman

     He won't let it go. He keeps trying to cast aspersions on Krugman and claim that he's some kind of fire breathing "extremist" on the periphery of debate. To be sure, whether or not someone is an extremest doesn't actually touch whether or not they're even wrong.

     However, Krugman is not nearly the outlier that Scarborough wants to claim. I think he's having a classic Very Serious People moment where any nuttiness you see on the Right has to be balanced out with an equally amount of nuttiness on the Left to show you're balanced.

     What we are actually seeing here is the myth of the Sensible Center. Scarborough is a conservative Republican who has been willing to engage in more questioning and soul searching than most. He admits the party has a problem. However, he needs to also believe that there is a crazed Left in mainstream political discourse as well. Trouble is, there isn't one.

      What he can't seem to get over is the idea that Krugman's views on the alleged coming "debt bomb" is an Urban Legend. For Krugman to simply point out that, alarmism to the contrary, there has been no surge in either inflation or interest rates due to either the 2009 fiscal stimulus-and overall deficit-or the monetary expansion of the Fed balance sheet for Scarborough is not just wrong, it's wild eyed Left Wing quackery.

       Yet among those with a reasonable amount of economic literacy, there's nothing shocking about it. If Scarborough has never heard this idea before he may need to get out more-he may be spading too much time around David Brooks, Bob Woodward, and David Gregory.

       Now, Scarborough's at it again, drawing a truly silly analogy of Krugman and the NRA's Wayne LaPierre

        "MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Thursday drew a considerable reaction on Twitter, asserting that New York Times liberal columnist Paul Krugman is as extreme on issues related to the national debt as National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre is on gun laws."

         "Krugman has long used his column to challenge debt and deficit hawks, while LaPierre has been steadfast in his opposition to proposed new gun laws. Scarborough, a former Republican congressman who has emphasized the importance of both reining in federal spending and countering the NRA's rhetoric, followed up on the tweet at the end of his eponymous morning program on Thursday."

           http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/scarborough-krugman-is-as-extreme-on-debt-as

           The trouble is the analogy is false. Among economists, Krugmans views aren't so extreme much less occupying it's own alternative universe. What seems to be happening is that Scarborough knows nothing about economics and is basing his views on the Urban Legends of Right wing pundits and VSP journalists.

            Scarborough has admitted a lot of the problem of the GOP. It probably seems to him unfair that there are no equivalents in the Democratic party to people like Akin, Richard Mordouck or Paul Broun. There aren't though. I do think its time Scarborough learn something about economics on his own. Does he know what Treasury yields are? If so why not check them and then answer the question as to whether or not they indicate loss of "market confidence" or a coming debt bomb.