09/02/10 Paris, France – Wolf, Stiglitz, Krugman – we love these guys!
They pushed the world’s governments to undertake huge “stimulus” programs. Of course, the stimulus programs didn’t work. They couldn’t work. All they could do was to disguise the facts and delay the necessary adjustments.
But these fellows don’t care about that. They are the technicians, scientists, and engineers of finance. They have measures of financial health – GDP, employment, inflation, etc. They may not be able to make anyone better off…but they can damned sure move those indicators. At least, they believe they can.
Spend enough money and you can move the GDP up. Hire enough people and you can get unemployment down. It’s not that complicated.
So, the engineers went to work two years ago. You know the rest of the story. That is how we got where we are. They turned valves. They connected wires. They adjusted dials and switches. They put at risk nearly an entire year’s worth of US GDP – on the idea that an economy can be controlled and managed, just as if it were a brewery.
How many cans do you want? Just work backward to figure out what inputs you need – how much grain, how much sugar, how many cans, how much electricity… It’s not rocket science, for Pete’s sake.
The trouble is…managing an economy is not science at all. And these guys are not scientists. They have no controlled experiments. They have no test panels nor test results. They have no peer reviews. They have no proper theories – none that can be disproven or confirmed. They just have crackpot ideas and quack treatments.
And now, Paul Krugman is on television in the US calling for another $800 billion program of boondoggles, bailouts and bumph. “Stimulus,” he calls it. Claptrap is what it is.
Regards,
Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning
Bill Bonner
Since founding Agora Inc. in 1979, Bill Bonner has found success and garnered camaraderie in numerous communities and industries. A man of many talents, his entrepreneurial savvy, unique writings, philanthropic undertakings, and preservationist activities have all been recognized and awarded by some of America's most respected authorities. Along with Addison Wiggin, his friend and colleague, Bill has written two New York Times best-selling books, Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. Both works have been critically acclaimed internationally. With political journalist Lila Rajiva, he wrote his third New York Times best-selling book, Mobs, Messiahs and Markets, which offers concrete advice on how to avoid the public spectacle of modern finance. Since 1999, Bill has been a daily contributor and the driving force behind The Daily Reckoning. Dice Have No Memory: Big Bets & Bad Economics from Paris to the Pampas, the newest book from Bill Bonner, is the definitive compendium of Bill’s daily reckonings from more than a decade: 1999-2010.
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paul krugman is an f-tard – the man is pure evil….
he is neither an economist nor a scientist….he is a witch doctor working for the for bankster and rockefeller witches…
Krugman outdoes himself – claims that Japanse deflation is simply a matter of “insufficient imagination” ie. too timid government spending!
http://www.truth-out.org/lost-stagnation-japans-dismal-tale62909#comment-219002
The Fed and governments toxic brew got us a good drunk but the hangover is going to be an everlasting one.
Paul Krugman now says we didn’t do enough and a Greater Depression is inevitable. No thanks to him!!!
Why should the fates of 300 million Americans have one hair to do with Paul F-ing Krugman?
We’re supposed to be free-born Americans.
Bill, you’re right on the money, all the stimulus in the world will not save this house of cards from the coming implosion.
I believe that we are heading for a world wide economic meltdown of absolutely biblical proportion.Pray that I am wrong!
Crispus, freedom is just an illusion. You’re no more free than a bird in a gilded cage.
Maybe so, but at least I can fly farther.
when we try to fix so many things in life, why can’t we also try and fix the economy. patch up the system, till something better comes along. let paul krugman work, he can’t live on his nobel prize winnings alone!
Trying to refloat this economy is like trying to refloat the Titanic. Sure it can be done, at great expense. Once you get it patched up it won’t go all that far before falling apart again. It’s better to put your effort into the new ship that’s already been started rather than all those materials ending up on the ocean floor with the failed economic model.
These guys are most certainly great. If it seems to work, well it’s thanks to them ; if it doesn’t work, it’s because it wasn’t enough. Good luck to be proven wrong then. Life would be easy if it was all it takes to solve most quarrels at home or at work