Obama team reaching out to Krugman.
By on Dec 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 am
Obama team reaching out to Krugman.
Politico reports that on Bill Press’s radio show today, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman was asked about “whether or not he was ‘in communications’ with the Obama administration regarding the economy, he declared: ‘Yes… I am. And that’s all I care to talk about.’” For at least three years, Krugman has been warning about the dangers of ballooning housing prices and the trade deficit. “One way or another, the economy will eventually eliminate both imbalances,” he wrote in August 2005. Read more at Krugman’s blog here.
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Now THAT’S a smart move.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:31 amHank Paulson gave $750 billion to his friends on Wall St…thanks, Hank.
Krugman could only yell so loud, but the Bushies didn’t want to hear any of it.
Let’s hope Obama uses our Nobel Prize winner to his utmost.
Oh, and let’s put Hank in jail with Big Dick & ‘Lil Bush.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:32 amWell, that’s a step in the right direction. Personally I think that Obama should have hired Krugman as Treasury Secretary. I know that he doesn’t have government experience, but I think for that position it would be a plus. A set of very smart fresh eyes is what we need.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 amGood Move. Ive had Krugman on my ‘fantasy cabinet’ since ‘03.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 amZimzone Says:
Hank Paulson gave $750 billion to his friends on Wall St…thanks, Hank.
Correction…Paulson gave $350 billion to his friends. The other $400,000 is reserved for Obama, assuming that Congress doesn’t do something really foolish like allowing Paulson access to that money.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 amOh, and let’s put Hank in jail with Big Dick & ‘Lil Bush.
I’ll second that…
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:40 amI second that, Bilbo, Krugman should have come ahead of Summers or Geithner for a post. His first course of action wouldn’t have been complaining to Obama that Sheila Bair “wasn’t a team player.”
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 amI third that! I’m thrilled to hear that Obama is at least consulting with Krugman. I simply fail to understand why obama has picked an economic team of such insiders. Geithner, Summers and Rubin? These are all the guys who helped set the Bush economic disaster stage.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:06 pmI don’t think Krugman even wants a government position. He’s a Nobel-prized, tenured professor emeritus at Princeton with a side job as a columnist for the New York Times. Why would he want to give any of that up? And these days, the NYT will even allow him to use the word “lies” when discussing the Bush administration. They wouldn’t let him use that word during the 2000 election. Seriously. The NYT editorial board would not let Krugman say that Bush was lying about his tax policies.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:17 pm49erDem Says:
Why would he want to give any of that up?
Because the country really needs him. Not everybody’s selfish. But on the other hand, given that he’s got a number of platforms already, he might be just as useful where he is.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 pmNo economist, including Dr. Krugman, was on top of the housing bubble before Dr. Dean Baker of cepr.net.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 pmNo, I think Krugman was warning about this kind of thing as early as 2002 when he wrote that we can’t build an economy on “selling houses to eachother.” Maybe Dr. Baker was there too in 2002, but I didn’t notice if he was.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 pmOn a related topic, I found this statistic at C&L:
GM CEO Rick Wagoner agreed to a token $1 salary as part of his bailout. His salary rose in 2007 by 64% to $15.7 million, significantly higher than his Toyota counterpart.
Rick Wagoner’s salary is FOURTEEN times more than his Toyota counterpart. $30 an hour for line employees equates to roughly $62,400 a year. That means that the CEO of GM earned the equivalent of more than 251 employees last year.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 pmReaching out to Krugman IS a smart move.
The Christian right Republicans have had their turn. It is time for PROGRESSIVES to take the lead and better this country.
I am curious…apart from the likes of Krugman, I would like to know what with the Christian right having tanked so badly nationally in the last election, why there so much deference paid them by this new leadership?
The only looking back that should be done is to hold these thugs accountable for the crimes against this country so we as a nation will understand how we got here. And so it won’t happen again.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:05 pmDear President-Elect Barack Obama,
I hear you are pushing for another stimulus package to help the economy. While another New Deal type of stimulus package sounds fine, but since congress has bailed out the banksters, AIG and the crooksters on Wall St., how about bailing out the American citizen. How about cutting a $20,000.00 personal check to every American citizen, I’m sure this would stimulate the economy while also directly helping we the people.
Also you are telling the American people that we are going to sacrifice so how about getting congress to sacrifice right along with the American people by cutting their bloated salaries in half until our financial and economical crisis has passed? Do those in congress who procided over this mess we are currently in really deserve to make $165,000.00 a year on a part time job that they have failed at miserably?
While your at it, don’t you think it’s time the US stops giiving out foreign aid to countries such as Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, etc, etc, until our countries economy and financial crisis has improved?
Sincerely,
One Angry American
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 pmsorry for the spelling and poor grammar…
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:09 pm“While your at it, don’t you think it’s time the US stops giiving out foreign aid to countries such as Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, etc, etc, until our countries economy and financial crisis has improved?”
I believe all of our foreign aid makes up about 1% of the total budget. No, I think the real problem is welfare for the wealthy and the large corporations. Corporations pay less taxes in this country than in any other industrialized nation, despite what Repubs say about the rates. We subsidize insurance companies to provide drugs rather than saving about $18 billion by cutting out the corporations and making the government the “middle-man.” We pay a 30 to 40% premium to insurance companies for our healthcare while the rest of the industrialized world provides universal healthcare at about a 5% margin. We drop hundreds of millions into missle defense while the biggest threats are from maniacs with box cutters.
There’s a lot to trim before we ever get around to foreign aid.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:18 pmKrugman ROCKS !
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:28 pmGo Obama it’s your birthday!! One of the smartest people in the World and who picks him? OBAMA/BIDEN
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 pmKrugman is a tool of the far-left. That’s why his opinion columns (yes, they are opinion, not fact-based, columns) are not in reputable newspapers with smarter economists such as the Wall Street Journal, etc. And by the way, winning the Nobel prize is great, but doesn’t provide a “gold stamp” of approval for his opinions which are barely disguised far-left economic malarkey.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:17 pmI rest my case by pointing out all the posts from the far-lefters above who are breaking their arms to pat themselves on the back for having “one of their own” in the Obama administration. Obama will make a good president, if he doesn’t listen to the ramblings of Krugman.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:18 pmI “recommended” JT’s post. Pi**ing off the neocons and the concern trolls is one of those added bonuses of Obama’s consulting with the smart people.
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:01 pmre: 21, 22
But strangely, Krugman was right about the housing bubble and unrestrained capitalism, while the neo-cons, esp. Phil Graham, were, uh-m, WRONG!
Facts: yet to make a dent in neo-con dogma.
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:26 pmMaybe there is a Santa Claus?
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 pmJt, a lot easier to make the case that Hank Paulson is a tool of Goldman Sachs! They did give him around $600 million. Don’t you think someone giving you $600 million would affect your views? Be honest.
As cosmogenium says, Krugman was right while every single conservative was wrong. Some at the end of Sept 2008 were saying our economy is hunky-dory.
Marie, new US autoworkers get $14 per hour I believe, per new union agreements. Reminds me that the Post Office was paying new people $12 per hour in 1978 and $6 per hour in 1993.
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:03 pmSomewhat off topic. Harpers article by Linda Bilmes & Joseph Stiglitz: THE TEN TRILLION DOLLAR HANGOVER
http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?tag=linda-bilmes
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:05 pmJT Says:
You DO know you are an idiot dont you? The New York Times is only NOT a reputable newspaper in the inbred world of planet Wingnut. On Planet Earth it is only about the most influential newspaper in the ENTIRE WORLD. Meanwhile keep telling us why the most recent NOBEL PRIZE WINNER in Economics isnt credible it only shows how stupid you are.
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:23 pmThe only downside I see to this if Paul Krugman joins the new administration is that we wouldn’t have his column to read anymore. I would really miss that. I’ve learned more about economics from him than I ever did in school.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:37 pm