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Health & Fitness

Paul Krugman's Stunning Economics Lesson - Denial of the Obvious

Paul Krugman Preaches the Mantra of, "Don't Worry, Be Happy": The National Debt and Spending are Not Problems! Oh Yes They Are, Professor!

With due respect to the intellectual syndicated columnist Paul Krugman, his column in Saturday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other essays he has written cause me to conclude that he resides in another universe.

Here are some excerpts from Krugman's "pearls of wisdom":

"The budget deficit isn't our biggest problem, by a long shot. Furthermore, it's a problem that is already, to a large degree, solved...The deficit will come down as the economy recovers...will economic recovery be enough to stabilize the fiscal outlook? The answer is, pretty much... the budget outlook for the next 10 years doesn't look at all alarming...Now, projections that run further into the future do suggest trouble, as an aging population and rising health care costs continue to push federal spending higher. But here's a question you almost never see seriously addressed: Why, exactly, should we believe that it's necessary, or even possible, to decide right now how we will eventually address the budget issues of the 2030s?...At this point, "reform" proposals are all about things like raising the retirement age or changing the inflation adjustment, moves that would gradually reduce benefits relative to current law. What problem is this supposed to solve?...The point is that the case for urgent action now to reduce spending decades in the future is far weaker than conventional rhetoric might lead you to suspect...So, no big problem in the medium term, no strong case for worrying now about long-run budget issues....neither the current deficit nor projected future spending deserve to be anywhere near the top of our political agenda..."

This is apparently the credo of, "We are doing just fine now (wrong), but if we ever run into a problem, we will deal with it then. Kick the can farther and farther down the road!"

Professor Krugman writes this as the national debt (that which is on the books) crashes through $16.4 trillion, an increase in the debt ceiling is imperative, and we have unfunded liabilities for entitlement programs that have been estimated at $86.8 trillion.

I find it chilling that this man teaches economics to impressionable students! Can he be charged with educational malpractice?

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