Paul Krugman, the NYTimes Nobel prize-winning economist, in his July 4 article, "The Confidence Fairy Won't Save Us", concludes his advocacy of additional stimulus spending (while ignoring the national debt, joblessness), with, "So the next time you hear serious-sounding people explaining the need for fiscal austerity, try to parse their argument.
" Of course, the same can be said about Mr.
Krugman's argument - what he ascribes to others is also clearly applicable to him: he says, "Well, there have been historical cases of spending cuts and tax increases followed by economic growth, but as far as I can tell,..
the negative effects of austerity were offset by other factors.
" His words seem fair-minded, however, shouldn't even a far-left economist, especially a Nobel Laureate, recognize when there is an elephant or two in the room? Mr.
Krugman speaks of the "confidence fairy" in the face of the U.
S.
national debt, now averaging over $40K for every American, infants included, already grown about $6K under Obama's short tenure.
He speaks of "confidence" when the general lack of financial resources in America is such that half the people don't even pay any income tax; true joblessness across the country continues to worsen; the national debt is 80+ % of the Gross Domestic Product, and we pay over $500 million in interest a day.
He apparently has no concern that continually adding debt is escalating panic across America - particularly in view of the floundering of Greece, Spain, etc, - and that average people fear that a true depression may be in the offing.
This is especially so as the oil-spill in the Gulf increasingly demonstrates the helplessness of the Federal government to mitigate the potential double disasters for America, ecological and financial - the spill perhaps impacting a significant fraction of the national economy.
The Nobel Laureate economist seems to be unaware of the - not one, but two - elephants in the room!