Krugman the bearded wimp decries the “enormous intellectual failure” of modern economics
Actually, economics and economists did a pretty good job, especially post-2008. As we explain earlier, economists and policy makers don’t necessarily need to be able to predict crisis; they only need to have the tools to keep crisis as brief and contained as possible, as was demonstrated in 1987 (Black Monday), 1998 (Long Term Capital Management implosion), 2001 (911 attacks), 2008 (financial crisis), and in 2011 (Greece + European crisis). Few predicted these events, but policy makers, using tried and true economic policy of infusing liquidity and bailouts, acted deftly and stemmed the problems before they metastasized, allowing the healthier portions of the economy to run with little interruption.
Krugman, let’s not forget, made all sorts of bad predictions in recent years, including but not limited to:
Europe crisis spreading
a country leaving the Eurozone
the Eurozone failing
He also predicted, incorrectly, that the sequester and alleged ‘GOP obstruction’ would hurt economic growth and job creation. Wrong again. Stocks keep making new highs, economic data keeps being blowout, and unemployment is just a 2% higher than 2006 – the lowest level in six years.
Another Bang-Up Prediction From Krugman, On Employment and the Sequester
They don’t call him the Nobel nitwit for nothing.
Economists can’t fix wealth inequality; they can only try to prescribe policy to create ‘economics environments’ that are conducive to the creation of wealth, so that hopefully there will be less poverty and more wealth, overall.
We need policy that creates wealth, not spreads it around. Inflation-adjusted entitlement spending is at record highs. The left blames ‘banksters’ for supposedly bringing down the middle class, but at some point, the individual bears responsibility, too. But, instead, we’re becoming a nation of whiners looking for anyone to blame but ourselves. Silicon Valley VCs are right about the global economy changing and the ‘losers’ being left behind as the rich getting richer. We need more financial technologies, more payday loans, and more consumer spending. The top 10 percent income earners pay 68% of the federal income taxes, in addition to creating jobs and technological innovation that improve living standards. The liberals think you can grow an economy by punishing those create the most value, while spreading their wealth to the least useful.