Paul Krugman

I think Paul Krugman is an idiot, so I'm going to offer my critique of some of his articles.

In this article, Krugman talks about how many on both the right and the left are criticizing Obama for focusing on healthcare and forgetting the economy. He contends that either Obama only had a choice back in 2009, or he was doomed on the economy all along. I guess he was doomed all along because he doesn't really have the mindset to improve the economy. But to contend that his only chance to choose between focusing on healthcare or the economy was back in 2009 in just dead wrong.

The problem is that the ways to actually help the economy are ways that liberals and democrats think don't work. They would never cut taxes, especially on businesses, (those greedy bastards). They would never decrease the minimum wage. They would never release restriction and regulation on businesses, especially small businesses. They would never alter tax laws and regulation to make it easier for companies to invest in R & D. They would never lift restrictions on banks so that credit is more readily available to companies.

Instead, they'll raise the minimum wage, in the misguided belief that it helps workers. They'll encourage unions to form, facilitate more power for the unions. They'll enact tariffs and embargoes on foreign imports. They'll tax big business more. They'll add restrictions on those preparing our taxes (wait, they already did that). They'll do many on these things and then be baffled when the economy continues to worsen.

Hopefully the citizens of every state will follow the citizens of Massachusetts' lead, actually thinking about the issues that affect them and voting accordingly. As our economy continues to decline, people will realize that focusing on social issues like healthcare, poverty, social security, etc are surefire ways to weaken and destroy economies. Hopefully. I'm not counting on it.

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In this article, he write about the conundrum that is Ben Bernanke's confirmation. This is actually a good article, highlighting both sides of the issue with remarkable clarity and lucidity for Krugman.

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In this article, he talks about how the democrats are planning to push the healthcare bill through. He claims that at least the democrats are standing for "something." So standing for "something" that increases the national deficit, and lowers the level of healthcare provided to all is better than standing for "nothing?" Glad to know he's such a respected mind.

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In this article, he writes how an unexpected outcome of Massachusetts was a turn against Geithner, Summers, and Bernanke. I certainly can't contest the fact that it's happening, but can contest the fact that they're the only ones to blame for the state of the economy. Oh right, Obama's absolved because of all the jobs he "saved." How can I forget the great work he's done on the economy. It's pretty convenient to laud yourself for something unquantifiable.

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Here's another one. I guess now the president isn't too keen on backing the healthcare plan. Maybe he's concerned about what the public thinks. They don't really like it. It's really impressive how well Krugman checks his facts, making sure he writes with integrity.

And another related one.

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In closing, as informed, critical-thinking members of society, we are truly blessed to have such an educated, bi-partisan, critical-thinking, unbiased, member of the academic and news groups to write about important issues. If you aren't able to detect my tone, you shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Minimum wage revisited

In this article, we see how blind journalists are to basic economics. (when typing "blind" I mistakenly typed "blond"; was that an ironic typo or what?) Most, if not all, minimum wage workers will not see an increase in their take home pay. They will likely see a small decrease in their hours, or a complete decrease in their hours. That's losing their job for those of you who didn't catch it. I don't know how much power Obama has/had to let this increase go through, but if/when unemployment keeps rising, especially among minimum wage workers, let's see how he wriggles out of this one.

Obama again

It's no secret that I've been critical and harsh on Obama many times. But in this article, I see nothing but positives. Obama owned up to his responsibility regarding the economy, acknowledging that it stinks right now. He didn't attempt to act like he knew what the Michigan residents were going through, which he couldn't know. He admitted that many auto jobs are gone forever. He didn't sugarcoat it. And he emphasized education. Instead of artificially creating jobs at huge government expense, increase the human capital of everyone. Sounds like a plan to me.

Uh oh

This isn't good. If Obama is being too optimistic regarding the economy (he is being too optimistic, he's running it into the ground..zing!) then all this government spending should have us really worried. Let's say that some health care bill passes, which would entail enormous spending. It's entirely possible that out economy is still struggling one year, two years, from now. There will be a massive deficit. What will we do? Print more money, eroding the purchasing power of the money Americans already have? Raise taxes to ridiculous levels on the rich, diminishing their incentive to work, invest, and create jobs? Raise taxes on everyone, gasp? The options are all bleak.

Don Boudreaux

In his usual pithy and eloquent manner, Don Boudreaux again calls out a public figure for being inconsistent. This time it happens to be Barack Obama. Barack is not dumb. His quote to the people in Accra show that. But to ignore that correct way of thinking in dealing with problems in his own country IS dumb. It shows that politicians don't make the correct decision. They make the decision that benefits those who can benefit them. Most people seek wealth, fame, and power above all other things and it looks like our president is no different.

Edit: Check out this article. Rub my back, I'll rub yours. Screw the well-being of the people. They can't do anything for me. We're lucky to have him as our commander in chief.

General Electric

GE employs 323,000. Because of Obama's financial system reforms, GE may have to make some radical changes in their company. If they are forced to spin off GE capital, or if their commercial paper rating gets cut, the loss of jobs will be swift and painful. Obama talks so much about "saving" jobs, let's see how many of GE's he destroys in the next year.

Let's fix America

David Harsnyi attempts to evaluate the Obama administration's efforts to alleviate the economic crisis. I'll concede that he writes one-sided, only using numbers that help his case. But still, we see the ineptitude of government (Yes, I'm lumping all politicians together, not just the Obama administration). The promise to keep unemployment under 8% was simply an effort to garner votes and support, not something they actually thought they could bring about. Spending large amounts of money to create infrastructure jobs helps some people, but at a large cost to taxpayers. The real way to create large amounts of jobs at no cost to the taxpayers is to release taxes and regulations on businesses, especially small businesses. Only the most stubborn and archaic politicians and economists would cling to the notion that our national economy and the global economy are zero sum games. The power of job creation and market expansion resides in the private sector, with the imaginative, brilliant, and daring, adjectives that hardly describe anyone in the public sector. What if we loosened restrictions on Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Valero, Marathon Oil, and Sunoco, who together employ 250,000 people? You don't think that they could create 50,000+ jobs in R&D and research? Pfizer, J & J, Abbott Labs, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Baxter, Genetech, and P & G employ over 260,000. If they can devote more resources to R & D, away from compliance, taxes, and other capital draining activities, thousands of jobs will be created, and maybe, just maybe we'll get cures for cancer, aids, alzheimers, and more. You don't think that would bring wealth to America? Companies like Facebook, Digg, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Hulu, and other spring up all the time, creating 100 jobs quickly. Loosen the red-tape, bureaucratic hoops, and boilerplate that new companies need to wade through, and you have yourselves a modern industrial revolution. Get real crazy and relax trade restrictions and the floodgates of creative invention, job creation, wealth creation, and economic prosperity would be pushed open. The inevitable flood of wealth to the US would be unbelievable. All we have to do, all Obama has to do, is lessen the corporate tax rate, and initial costs to small businesses. If he wants to ignore these massive, potential, positive effects in the vacuous and inefficient throwing of taxpayers money at projects that fatten the bureaucratic wallet, he might as well be stealing from every American.