The Crowbar

“Keynesian concerns” were not properly considered in the first stimulus debate, according to everyone’s favorite hard-left backwards-thinking economist Paul Krugman.

What wasn’t considered?

During the initial discussion of the stimulus, the debate was framed almost entirely as a debate between Obama and those who said the stimulus was too big; the voices of those saying it was too small were largely frozen out. And they still are…

Yes, Krugman is a member of the Keynesian School of Economic Magick With a ‘K.’ This school of thought believes that government spending is imbued with special pOWerZ to make consumers & producers suddenly realize, “Wow, if the government is spending gobs of money, then everything’s going to be A-OK.” Sadly, such economics only work in places like Pleasantville. In full-color reality, government spending only changes who gets to decide where the wealth is spent – and that would be the politicians, of course, who Always Know Better That You.

So then, here’s the kicker:

the voices calling for stronger stimulus are, may I say, sorta kinda respectable — several Nobelists in the bunch, plus a large fraction of the prominent economists who predicted the housing crash before it happened.

Having a Nobel prize doesn’t mean squat if you’re pushing asinine ideas.

< Pause briefly to consider Nobel prize winners Climate Change Preacher Al Gore and Terrorist Yasser Afarat. >

Also, it doesn’t take a “prominent economist” to know when a housing crash is coming – a rhudimentary understanding of economics can easily provide such a prediction. It was pretty obvious to me (not an economist) a housing crash was coming – the frantic pace of growth was unsustainable, especially combined with free-wheeling credit.

But somehow, the pro-stimulus people are unpersons. Who makes these decisions?

Who? Thankfully, not Waaah-Nobody-Listens-To-My-Bad-Ideas-But-They-Should-Because-I-Have-a-Nobel-Prize Krugman.

Krugman joins the 183 crowd:

I think I ought to say something about the torture memos — namely, that there is now no way to view the people who ruled us these past 8 years as anything but monsters.

There is no way, eh? Krugman the populist economist has spoken, the debate over what constitutes torture is SO over.

We had all these rationalizations of torture over the “ticking clock” and all that — then we learn, for example, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in one month. I really don’t even want to think about all this. But this was our government — and these people might be back.

Yes, those TERRIBLE rationalizations. I mean, the HORROR of pouring lots of water 6 times a day on someone who knew of plans to murder Americans to get them to spill the beans. What HAVE we come to???? Are the walls of civilization CRUMBLING??? OHHHH!!!! I just can’t think about it either! C’mon Krugman, get a grip.