Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Casual Lying
The reason why conservatives probably do not spend enough time attempting to refute arguments by Paul Krugman is his casual disregard for the truth. He is a respected Nobel Prize winning economist with a huge influence on the Left. However, as a pundit he says anything, true or not, that helps his political point. Why argue with someone like that? It is pointless.
I've written before about Harvard economist Robert Barro's comments on Krugman the pundit. When Krugman was quoted stating that World War II did not lift the US economy out of the depression, Barro said "He said elsewhere that it was good and that it was what got us out of the depression. He just says whatever is convenient for his political argument." And the Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus pointed out that Krugman wrote about the crisis in Social Security when the Democrats were trying to put it in a "lock box", and then wrote about the myth of any crisis when the Republicans tried to reform it.
Now on This Week Krugman states that "All the news says that the economy is getting worse...all the measures that you use about the health of the economy are continuing to deteriorate." Stephanopoulos points out that durable goods orders and housing sales are rising. Krugman calls these "bits and pieces." But they are not trivial, they are "measures about the health of the economy", and Krugman was lying when he said that "all" the measures were deteriorating.
This is at least part of the reason why he is mostly ignored by people who disagree with him, and lauded by those agree with him. Arguing with someone who will change positions without acknowledging the change and ignores facts is fruitless.
I've written before about Harvard economist Robert Barro's comments on Krugman the pundit. When Krugman was quoted stating that World War II did not lift the US economy out of the depression, Barro said "He said elsewhere that it was good and that it was what got us out of the depression. He just says whatever is convenient for his political argument." And the Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus pointed out that Krugman wrote about the crisis in Social Security when the Democrats were trying to put it in a "lock box", and then wrote about the myth of any crisis when the Republicans tried to reform it.
Now on This Week Krugman states that "All the news says that the economy is getting worse...all the measures that you use about the health of the economy are continuing to deteriorate." Stephanopoulos points out that durable goods orders and housing sales are rising. Krugman calls these "bits and pieces." But they are not trivial, they are "measures about the health of the economy", and Krugman was lying when he said that "all" the measures were deteriorating.
This is at least part of the reason why he is mostly ignored by people who disagree with him, and lauded by those agree with him. Arguing with someone who will change positions without acknowledging the change and ignores facts is fruitless.
