Paul Krugman: The Ryan Response

[cal04]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/the-ryan-response/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman

… was as bad as you might expect. Lots of breast-beating about deficits; you’d never know that no leading Republican, Ryan very much included, has offered a serious proposal to cut the deficit. Some cooked statistics about federal spending. And then there was this curious assertion:

Just take a look at what’s happening to Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom and other nations in Europe. They didn’t act soon enough; and now their governments have been forced to impose painful austerity measures: large benefit cuts to seniors and huge tax increases on everybody.

Greece maybe fits that description. But if you’d read anything about the euro crisis — like this article — you’d know that Ireland was running a budget surplus on the eve of the crisis, and had quite low debt. Its problems now have nothing to do with fiscal irresponsibility in the past; they’re the consequence of weak financial regulation and the government’s too-generous bank bailout.

(snip)
So I guess we’re supposed to take heed of what Ryan believes happened in Europe, never mind that it isn’t what actually happened.

[snappyturtle]

1. Well surely Krugman knows that Republican reality has never

been laced with facts. I hope that isn't a revelation to him!

[spooky3]

2. aww, what does a Nobel Prize winning economist know about economics?

:sarcasm:

[unkachuck]

3. K&R....n/t

[mdmc]

4. ..