Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

A thought watching the Trump and Rudy show: an old line says that people get worse as they get older, because they become more like themselves. These guys seem bent on demonstrating that line's truth. — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

DEBT IS MONEY WE OWE TO OURSELVES DEBT IS MONEY WE OWE TO OURSELVES DEBT IS MONEY WE OWE TO OURSELVES DEBT IS MONEY .... It only make us poorer in aggregate if it crowds out investment — which is isn't doing — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Warren, however, knows what she's up against. This is a bigger asset than her policy wonkishness, much as I admire it 2/ https://t.co/HYDhEJPC1i — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

It has long seemed to me that Biden's big problem is his unwillingness to confront head-on what the GOP has become. This is a symptom of the same problem; it's as if he imagines that the Senate would really deliberate the way it once did 1/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

This aid creates jobs too! KY has <6K coal miners, around 250K jobs in health and social assistance. Who do you think pays for that? 3/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Outlays slightly declining in income, probably bc of means-tested programs; sharply declining as share of income. Receipts strongly increasing in income. So poor states like Kentucky receive gigantic net inflows, ~20 percent of state GDP 2/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

So I gave the lunchtime keynote yesterday at the Boston Fed conference on regional divergence. I didn't use slides; but one point I made is that the feds effectively give large aid to lagging states. Here's Federal outlays and receipts by state by state per capita income 1/ https://t.co/zO0V2d0FbV — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Event at Brookings yesterday; you can see videos of various discussions, including the panel I was on, here https://t.co/y7LvTdlj8k — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

At some meta level this is part of a broader story in which the America that lives in our minds is no longer the America we actually live in. We think of ourselves as a land of great mobility, social and geographical both. These days we are neither 4/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

But now it's not true at all: unemployment differences very persistent 3/ https://t.co/tpU8TAvHWb — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

The stylized fact about America used to be that unemployment differences between regions were transitory, because people moved. And as a paper by Russ and Shambaugh says, this used to be true 2/ https://t.co/bdgqddBKID — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

At a Boston Fed conference on regional disparities, and am learning a lot 1/ https://t.co/We6DMRJHg8 — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Presidents often get blame or credit for economic developments outside their control. But Trump's problems are very much of his own making https://t.co/kiSlVESffn — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

RT @nytopinion: Trump "may well be the first president of modern times to preside over a slump that can be directly attributed to his own p… — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

I talk to the West Side Rag https://t.co/6ishASO9ti — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

All this is, of course, a minor sideshow. Much more important to ask whether any R senators will relocate their spines. Experience isn't encouraging, but hope springs eternal 4/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

One answer might be Pelosi derangement syndrome: they may be anti-Trump, but can't stand admitting that Dems are doing anything right. Strong overlap between never-impeachers and those who insisted Dems were blowing the midterms 3/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Actually, a real puzzle: why are so many center-right anti-Trumpers deeply opposed to holding Trump accountable for abuse of power? You might think they'd be glad to see him fall bc of his personal sins, not his policies 2/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

So all the pundits who warned that Dems were making a terrible mistake are engaged in some serious soul-searching, right? Hahahaha https://t.co/AGc7gjXaNZ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

RT @joshtpm: The president doesn’t just need to be impeached. He needs to be sedated. — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Gonna try to do some proper algebra on this when I get a chance. But this does seem like an alternative/supplement to stories about the growing importance of the knowledge economy. OK, emotional vacation from the dire state of politics is now over 7/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Assuming Nerds have more education and higher wages, the result is growing regional disparities in both education and incomes. And I'm pretty sure that land prices in big centers might actually go up even though it's easier to move some stuff away 6/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Now develop technology that lets Clerks work remotely. This lets firms move their jobs to lower-cost locations. But it also frees them to move Nerds to high-cost locations, because they can get the spillovers without having to increase Clerk wages 5/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

This limited concentration of firms in big metropolitan centers, because firms choosing to locate there had to pay both Nerds and Clerks higher wages to compensate for higher land prices and hence cost of living 4/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Sketch of a model: imagine that production requires two kinds of workers, Nerds and Clerks. Nerds benefit from the spillovers that come from being near each other, be it Silicon Valley or Wall Street. Clerks don't. But in the past they had to be located together 3/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

So I'm playing with a hypothesis, which is that "offsiteing" — not offshoring, which is moving stuff abroad, but just moving it to lower-cost locations in the US — may actually be contributing to divergence 2/ — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

While democracy melts down, I'm going to be spending the next few days being very academic - 4 conferences in 3 cities in 5 days. (All on different topics!) One of them is about regional divergence, and I'm still thinking about this piece 1/ https://t.co/wwD7J3q3Yq — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

So he's saying that it's a Moot point? Sorry, couldn't help myself https://t.co/8HUw1Y5y5E — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

THEY HAVEN'T CHANGED. The GOP has been rejecting facts, denying the legitimacy of its opponents, engaging in wild conspiracy theories, etc since the 1990s. All that Trump has brought is a new level of vulgarity that makes it harder to pretend it's a normal party — PolitiTweet.org

Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

Robert Shiller's new book sounds neat, especially the part about Andrew Yangs of the 1930s, when everyone serious just knew that technology was responsible for high unemployment https://t.co/5td66jK6pl https://t.co/FnbwLCC6aB — PolitiTweet.org