He goes after Krugman.
"In short, I can’t help feeling that the gold bugs are right. No, I’m not stashing gold bars under my bed. But that’s only because I lack the courage of my convictions."
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/the-liquidationist-urge/
We often hear Austerians declare that you can't cure the debt problem with more debt. However, Kinsley thinks we can cure the pain problem with more pain. The cure must also hurt according to him.
Mr. Kinsley if you want pain try reading Peggy Noonan.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/05/after-reading-peggy-noonan-today-maybe.html
As Krugman says, economics is not a morality play. As opposed to our political process which is a Vaudeville play.
P.S. Krugman wrote a very good piece in the New Yorker for how the case for austerity has crumbled.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jun/06/how-case-austerity-has-crumbled/
Of course, just in time, Washington has moved on to fake scandals about Obama. In 2009 we talked about jobs and the economy. In 2011 we "pivoted" to-unwarranted-deficit reduction. Now in 2013 we're pivoting to the Whitewater 90s. We get Ken Starr without the jobs and growth.
Yet Kinsley worries we haven't suffered enough yet.
"In short, I can’t help feeling that the gold bugs are right. No, I’m not stashing gold bars under my bed. But that’s only because I lack the courage of my convictions."
"My fear is not the result of economic analysis. It’s more from the realm of psychology. I mean mine."
"But this cure has been one ice-cream sundae after another. It can’t be that easy, can it? The puritan in me says that there has to be some pain. That’s not to say that there hasn’t been plenty of economic pain. But that pain has come from the recession itself, not the cure."
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/the-liquidationist-urge/
We often hear Austerians declare that you can't cure the debt problem with more debt. However, Kinsley thinks we can cure the pain problem with more pain. The cure must also hurt according to him.
Mr. Kinsley if you want pain try reading Peggy Noonan.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/05/after-reading-peggy-noonan-today-maybe.html
As Krugman says, economics is not a morality play. As opposed to our political process which is a Vaudeville play.
P.S. Krugman wrote a very good piece in the New Yorker for how the case for austerity has crumbled.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jun/06/how-case-austerity-has-crumbled/
Of course, just in time, Washington has moved on to fake scandals about Obama. In 2009 we talked about jobs and the economy. In 2011 we "pivoted" to-unwarranted-deficit reduction. Now in 2013 we're pivoting to the Whitewater 90s. We get Ken Starr without the jobs and growth.
Yet Kinsley worries we haven't suffered enough yet.
There are so many ideas at odds with each other in this guys thinking.
ReplyDeleteSo we made mistakes in the past, I assume he means too much debt, and now we must pay. Yet its mostly the govts debt we seem to be focusing on, which no individual citizens are responsible for at all, unless you say the citizen is responsible for the debt because he buys a TBill as his savings. Which means you are criticizing the saving of the citizen, while at the same time asking him (and the govt) to save MORE now!!??
And if he acknowledges that the govts debt isnt really the problem but the private debt which people are defaulting on, straining banks' balance sheets, how does lowering wages and increasing the number of people out of work help the situation? Why is THAT the pain that needs inflicting? Then, even when you acknowledge that it isnt good for private sector jobs to be lost, how can you justify public sector job loss?
Do public sector workers not have mortgages to pay too?
Even if you buy the "Pain is necessary medicine" argument (which I dont) tell me exactly which pain it is. Not all pain is equal. Is it simply necessary that we accept lower wages and work a few more hours to pay down past accumulated debts? Okay, but completely eliminating jobs makes neither possible. Is it simply that we ALL need to accept a lower standard of living? Then suggest something about the fact that a few have gotten way richer the last five years while most have gotten poorer.
How much poorer do the rest have to get before you are satisfied? Give us the end point.
Yeah, I'm disappointed in Kinsley. Back in the 90s I used to think of him as a liberal and "one of us." Of course, I'm disappointed in Chris Matthews and even a lot of Huffington Post the last week.
ReplyDeleteTrouble is he's economicaly illiterate. Still it does get to the real point: a lot of people think we need to suffer-even more pain. Krugman's rihgt that many see it as a morality play.
Like you said there's private debt and public debt. With the private sector deleveraging we need the government to step in and spend more. This basic point seems beyond so many people.
As Krugman's piece suggests, austerity is crumbling at least intellectually. Trouble is we've gone from austerity to something even worse-scandal politics.
Again, Ken Starr without the growth
You ever read David Graeber or listen to one of his interviews on youtube? They kind of get to the heart of this debt & pain as morality play issue.
ReplyDelete