Wednesday, August 26, 2009

 

Krugman's Phony Congratulations to Bernanke

I have an unhealthy obsession with Paul Krugman's blog, and something I've noticed is that when he gives somebody a compliment, sometimes you can tell it's completely phony and political. For example, here's his tribute to Big Ben:
Generally, I’m pleased. Bernanke has done a good job in the crisis — he’s been far more aggressive and creative than almost anyone else would have been in his place, partly because he’s a scholar of the Great Depression, partly because he took Japan’s lost decade seriously and was therefore intellectually prepared for a liquidity-trap world.

I do have one qualm, though, which isn’t really about Bernanke, but rather about the broader symbolism of the reappointment...

...[Y]ou’re not considered serious about economic policy unless you dismissed warnings about a housing bubble and waved off worries about future crises.

That said, Ben Bernanke’s performance over the past year deserves praise, and there’s nobody I’d rather have in his position. Congratulations, Ben.
And in case it's not obvious, that link is to a very embarrassing 2005 Washington Post story reporting that Bernanke didn't think there was a housing bubble.

And as far Krugman's closing lines, c'mon, he obviously doesn't mean that. There's nobody on the entire planet that Krugman would rather have as Fed chair than Bernanke? Give me a break, everybody knows Krugman is insincere.

I googled "Bernanke" appearances in Krugman's blog to see how he's been in the past. And you see the same pattern. E.g. in this post, Krugman opens up by thanking his lucky stars that Bernanke is at the helm, but by the end of the post you realize Krugman is saying Bernanke doesn't realize his own impotence.

In this post, Krugman says deteriorating credit markets have undone everything Bernanke tried to do. True, he didn't rip Bernanke per se, but it's hardly a compliment to the guy.

In this post he refers to the wussy testimony of Bernanke, showing that he and Paulson don't have the guts to nationalize the banks and thus spare us a repeat of Japan's lost decade. The title of the post? "All the President's Zombies." Again, not exactly flattering.

In this post, "A $700 Billion Slap in the Face," Krugman says that Paulson and Bernanke are grasping at straws trying to justify their approach to the financial crisis. Again, not a single word of praise in here for Bernanke, except that Krugman credits him with at least coming with a theory (that Krugman then tells us is stupid) for the TARP.

At long last--near the bottom of my hits for the advanced Google search--I think I found a blog post from January 2008 where Krugman might actually be praising Bernanke. But go ahead and read it. You have to infer the praise; I had to click on Krugman's link to a news article to get the full context, in order to even offer my opinion that I think Krugman is actually complimenting Bernanke in this one (before going on to rip Bush and Paulson). Again, hardly flattering.

In this post, Krugman praises Bernanke for dropping his prepared remarks and letting the cat partially out of the bag concerning the "fundamentally disingenuous" line that he and Paulson had been pushing at the time. Again, to say someone slipped up a bit and admitted he had been trying to rob taxpayers, is not exactly congratulatory.

Well I reached the end of the first page of my Google search results. I'm sure we all see now why Krugman said that there is no one he would rather have at the Fed than Ben Bernanke. My gosh, it's bad enough when Krugman plays loose with the facts when ripping his enemies--but he can't even congratulate someone with sincerity?

If you want another example of a non-flattering "compliment," check out his post on Larry Summers. If I were Summers, I would have gone through the roof when reading that. Krugman did the equivalent of saying, "Now I want to draw everyone's attention to this claim I got emailed to me from a self-identified prostitute, saying that Larry Summers visits her weekly and has a microscopic wee wee. And folks, let me tell you, that is just crazy. We played racquetball once, and showered afterward, and I didn't need a microscope. If you want to say it was tiny, I'm prepared to talk. But microscopic? No ma'am, you are mistaken."

Does anybody trust Krugman?



Comments:
Well, given that Krugman is part evil and part fraud (or maybe fully evil and fully fraudulent), I would say that his blog posts always will be one thing in the end: self-serving.

Let's face it. Never have we seen such a self-serving economic columnist anywhere. When Milton Friedman and Paul Samuleson had columns in Newsweek, they were much more professional than Krugman ever has been. One could disagree with what they said, but we never got the notion that their columns exposed them as being evil.
 
For those interested, Secretary Geitner answers questions (and kinda dodges some) from the web community here:

http://digg.com/dialogg/Timothy_Geithner_1
 
Bob,

I forgot if this is a family blog or not so pardon the lack of self-censorship. Anyway, I was going to say "Man, Krugman is such a passive aggressive little BITCH!" but then I remembered he's active aggressive as he usually calls his opponents stupid and ridiculous (note: I'm a hypocrite on that point as well). I guess he saves the passive aggressive stuff for his intellectual "peers"?

You can almost imagine him mock clapping unenthusiastically before he sighs and goes back to writing in his diary about the nasty Republican he overheard at Starbucks who totally ruined, like, his entire day.
 
___________


Tel Aviv, Friday, 28th August 2009.


The Puzzle of The Crash and The Sacrifice of Gilaad Shalit.


In this article I tell that The Crash will take place on Friday, 18nth September 2009 at 4:11 PM EST.

The reading of that article is of the uttermost importance for everyone.

It is even more important to the Islamic and Jewish people, the sons of Abraham.

It presents the causes and consequences of The Crash.

It proves that Ben 'Systemic Risk' Bernanke engineered deliberately the Great Recession and The Crash

For Eid ul-Fitr the Hamas will sacrifice Gilaad Shalit.

Tell the new to the world and free Gilad Shalit on 4th September 2009 at 5:58 Jerusalem Time and everything will be fine for example.

Some of you may be shocked by the videos and their wordings. Please don't watch them.


The Puzzle of The Crash and The Sacrifice of Gilaad Shalit.


___________
 
It is never unhealthy to study Mr. Krugman. He is a perfect representative of today’s leftist/progressive mindset. Most “progressives” cannot and do not deal in facts, evidence or logic in responding to their ideological opponents and rely primarily upon ad hominem attacks, intimidation through mocking, avoidance of their opponents’ essential points and flat out lies and misrepresentation. Krugman does all of these things. Always. He lies about what others might have said on a particular topic and he lies about what he has said about past matters. This year, he lied about repeatedly clamoring for a housing bubble back in 2001.

The fact of the matter is that none of these clowns has the guts to make even an attempt at understanding Austrian Economics. There is simply no evidence that any of them understand our position at all. If they found themselves on TV across the table from Bob Murphy, Lew Rockwell or Tom Woods, they simply would not know what to say. This is why the NYT won’t review Tom Woods’ “Meltdown”. White knuckle fear on the part of our “progressive” betters.

This means we should be able to win a fair fight.
 
Geeze, you ARE obsessed with Krugman's blog. It's good--I am a huge fan of the Krugman deconstructions!!!!

I don't trust him, but I know many people who do. Most people don't have time to study economics enough to spot his contradictions. He's got the credentials and the professorial look and that enough for them.

Then there are others who willfully ignore the contradictions because they fly in the face of their utopic hope. Progressives never let stupid things like reality stop them.
 
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