Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

RT @markgongloff: You can't make a Tesla without losing a Solyndra or two along the way https://t.co/xlb7SFQozI w @Noahpinion @chrismbryant… — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Now Democrats seem to have found a way to pursue progressive goals in a non-threatening way. And Republicans don't seem to have any answers beyond filibustering and voter suppression 2/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

A slightly different but complementary take: polling has always suggested that Americans like progressive *ideas*, but are often scared into voting against progressive *politicians* 1/ https://t.co/AQLsNqdCT8 — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Europe does ordinary health care much better than we do. But its vaccine rollout is a disaster, with deep roots in its political dysfunction https://t.co/mlWhtviEom — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

RT @johnauthers: Worth Reading. Paul Krugman is completely right about this, sad to say: Vaccines: A Very European Disaster https://t.co/GK… — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

RT @nytopinion: European bureaucrats, @PaulKrugman writes, seem "haunted by the fear that someone, somewhere — whether it be pharmaceutical… — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

A report on my debate with Larry Summers. The clear winner: my black mock turtleneck https://t.co/XTLyp4VE5T — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Really disappointed that so few readers know any art history ... — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

If true, credit to policymakers. And by policymakers we mean Biden, his allies, and precisely zero Republicans. — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Already existing trend: even pre-pandemic some corporate headquarters were moving back to NY and other big cities bc they could do back-office stuff in cheaper locations while moving top execs and key tech people back to where the action was — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Everyone in Fedworld eagerly awaiting this afternoon's dot plot. Here's a preview https://t.co/fR9Y1FBMt0 — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

So there have been important changes in how economists talk about policy, some of which include rethinking of our models. But a lot of what has happened is simply that economists are following their existing models, instead of tweaking them to justify political prejudices 15/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

That is a pretty big deal, and feeds directly into policy: Biden and co's relaxed attitude toward debt is matched by a relaxed attitude toward inflation 14/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

This doesn't mean that inflation is never a concern. But it does mean that the stability of inflation over time does NOT mean that the economy was on average at full employment. Instead, there's now a good case that we've been persistently underemployed 13/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Low unemployment and a hot economy do seem to yield somewhat higher inflation; but there has been no sign that this quickly or easily translates into an ever-rising inflation rate. Maybe it's anchored expectations, maybe it's downward wage rigidity, but it's just not there 12/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

The other big change — and this does mark a change in theory — is that the NAIRU has largely dropped out of discussion — basically because nothing that's happened since 1985 supports an "accelerationist" view of inflation 11/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Anyway, the whole debate over ARPA was in effect conducted in terms of functional finance — not whether it cost too much, but whether it was inflationary. But that's not so much new theory as taking our own models seriously 10/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Someone will bring up MMT. After all this time, I still don't know what it is beyond functional finance — every time you try, you're told that you don't get it, and at this point I think it's mainly a marketing ploy. So never mind 9/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

The truth is that if we'd taken our own models seriously we would have adopted an attitude much closer to Abba Lerner's functional finance 8/ https://t.co/Grfh3FrcBX — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Concerns about debt did loom larger in economic analysis than they should have — partly, I think, because people didn't grasp the implications of r<g, partly out of partially unconscious deference to political fashion 7/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

So part of what's happening is simply that the Biden team is actually listening to the economic consensus, rather than grabbing dubious doctrines that fit right-wing preconceptions. But it's also true that there have been some changes in theory 6/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

No, austerity isn't expansionary; no, there isn't a growth cliff at a debt ratio of 90 percent. Nothing in standard macro suggested either of these things should be true. All that supported them was bad statistical analysis and the political will to believe 5/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

It was actually quite weird: there was a lot of innovative, creative economic analysis — all of which turned out to be dead wrong — being deployed FOR austerity, which conventional macro rightly said was a really bad idea 4/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

One thing people should realize, however, is that policy orthodoxy in, say, 2011 did NOT reflect macroeconomic orthodoxy in the sense of what the standard models said. In crucial areas it was in flat defiance of what Macroeconomics 101 would have recommended 3/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

The ARPA definitely marks a big break with the austerity/debt obsession that crippled recovery after the 2008 crisis. That's a very big deal. And even the debate over the bill was very different from what went before 2/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

There's been a fair bit of Econotwittering about this J.W. Mason post on the American Rescue Plan and what it says about economic theory. I agree with a lot although not all of it, and in any case think some might be interested in my take 1/ https://t.co/vWUuTumLLE — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Related: when in a lunchtime zoom meeting, please turn off your camera when chewing. It is, on the other hand, OK to sip bourbon on-screen during after-dinner meetings. — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Don't disagree. Consensus forecasts suggest that we might slightly overshoot potential, and some above-trend inflation definitely possible. But unlikely to be more than a blip — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

I sometimes ask "what happened to Lou Dobbs?" or even "what happened to Rudi Giuliani?" But one never asks "what happened to Larry Kudlow?" This is who he always was https://t.co/6VVC7BKGmT — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

How it's going 2/ https://t.co/h9SLpcKxNM — PolitiTweet.org