Economics and similar, for the sleep-deprived
A subtle change has been made to the comments links, so they no longer pop up. Does this in any way help with the problem about comments not appearing on permalinked posts, readers?
Update: seemingly not
Update: Oh yeah!
Tuesday, September 03, 2002
Quisling the night away ...
Because I am all over "giving succour to the enemy", I will give Mickey Kaus the tip, for nothing, that Paul Krugman is laying it on a bit thick when he says: . Fiscal policy is effectively off the table, partly because of long-run deficits worsened by Mr. Greenspan's own bad advice. Funny how he wasn't sure that Nasdaq 5,000 was a bubble, but believed that 10-year surplus projections were reliable enough to justify a huge tax cut.
That's a bit unfair. What Greenspan actually said was that the projections didn't justify any actions to loosen the fiscal stance, but that if loosening was a given, he would rather see it take place through tax cuts than through an increase in spending. Which, if you ask me, is pretty fucking idiotic in and of itself, but it's pretty clear that he was doing the old "Yes Minister bit of saying "If You Have To Do This Bloody Stupid Thing, Don't Do It In This Bloody Stupid Way, Minister"
So there you go, Mickey, have fun like a madman. Of course, this doesn't alter the fact that the main thrust of Krugman's article -- that Greenspan is being disingenuous over his actions during the bubble, and that his Fed appears to be falling into a dangerous pattern of failing to take prompt action because to do so would mean admitting past mistakes -- is absolutely right. Come to think of it, I'd appreciate it if anybody who wants to use my little Krugman-bash above also includes that caveat. After all, we're all about being accurate, professional and fair, here in the wacky world of weblogs ...
this item posted by the management 9/03/2002 09:44:00 AM
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