What’s the matter with Paul Krugman?
Rarely does a Nobel Prize-winning economist specifically inquire about the job performance of a state like Alabama. This week, Paul Krugman, a popular liberal commentary writer for the New York Times, asked, “What’s the matter with Alabama?”
Specifically, Krugman referred to a Bloomberg News chart which provided a national snapshot of state job gains and losses since their pre-recession peak. North Dakota led the way in job gains as a result of the state’s energy boom. The only state that Alabama outperformed was Nevada.
From the chart, Krugman sarcastically noted that the political right’s narrative of states with “job-destroying liberal Democratic governors” faring worse “than those with job-creating conservative Republican governors” does not seem to match the job performance of the states.
Krugman’s piece slid into the conclusion that the only way to believe that taxing the rich or helping the poor would destroy job growth is to “invent your own facts.” He may have simply been taking a jab at Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore, but that does not excuse his comment.
Krugman is not easily dismissed as a liberal ideologue. He is smart, snarky and a constant thorn in the side of supply-side economists. He also happened to be a Democrat on the staff of Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors.
The problem with Krugman’s little blurb is that he concedes “there’s not much correlation either way.” Even if there were a correlation, a policy conclusion is a much more complicated exercise. But without even so much as a correlation, Krugman reaches a general conclusion about the policies of the political right and then takes a shot at Alabama because the title “What’s the matter with Nevada?” probably did not have the same ring to it.
It is sloppy work from a talented writer who otherwise has the ability to develop politically practical economic ideas. Alabama’s perspectives on taxes and government might not fit with Krugman’s, but America needs people with his abilities to help craft solutions that fit within political realities.
Simply saying we should increase taxes on the wealthy and spend more on government programs is nothing new. What would be novel is an economist like Krugman trying to build solutions within a system where raising taxes is a political non-starter.
What’s the matter with Paul Krugman? Maybe he is more comfortable sniping at conservative states than he is developing economic ideas that could actually work in them.
