Michael Kinsley, managing editor of The Atlantic Wire, is annoyed with Paul Krugman’s latest column in The New York Times, which he calls patronizing for its
“„Paul Krugman writes another patronizing column Monday morning in the New York Times, accusing deficit hawks of not understanding a simple proposition: “Spend now, while the economy remains depressed; save later, once it has recovered. How hard is that to understand?” He says that we need just a couple more years of stimulus through deficit spending and then we’ll be ready to start saving to pay down the debt. [...]
“„Krugman himself looks at CBO projections of deficits declining from 10 percent of GDP now to four percent in 2014 before starting to rise again, and concedes that this is “not enough.” Then he cavalierly says that all you need to solve the problem is (a) to bring health costs under control, and (b) a five-percent value added tax. Oh, is that all? I have no doubt that if Paul Krugman were economic dictator, we could impose these or other solutions. In the real world (or should I say “unreal world”) of current American politics, either one of these partial solutions is unthinkable without a catastrophic crisis to force our hand.