[kj] OT: Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on the economic crisis

Brendan bq at soundgardener.co.nz
Thu Apr 30 12:56:02 EDT 2009


He's about as liberal as he feels he can be within the confines of the
political / social structure he works within, that's my take. I tend to
agree with you, and have stronger opinions about the Fed and the US Govt,
regulation etc, but where I work I keep all of that to myself. Pragmatism
vs idealism I suppose.

If you watch that video you'll see that he's basically a realist about the
extent to which society does what needs to be done (i.e. only to a limited
extent, and sometimes not at all), due to realpolitik. He's clear on that
point. He also tries to avoid some of the more political / social
commentary, being an economist. (And yeah, I personally agree that you
can't totally divorce the economic from the social / political...)

Politically you'd probably get more out of Noam Chomsky, or Dean Baker and
the guys at www.alternet.org or www.truthout.org.

In terms of Krugman being behind the govt / taxpayer support of financial
institutions, he's a realist there as well. Pragmatically how much of a
mess would it be for the govt to nationalise and split up all of these
large institutions in one hit...the economic fallout would be huge. Long
term I think it's what needs to be done, they can't be allowed to get 'too
big to fail' ever again. But the real pain from the economic fallout in
the whole system falling over and being built up again, is beyond most
incumbent politicians', and most people's, will...


>

> I thought he was good on the war and torture (which are subjects now

> forgotten in the haze of a mystery flu). But, as an economist he supports

> the continuance and acceleration of Bush's insanity of propping up

> malinvestments and failed performance with huge spending. This is the

> Keynesian madness that got us to the point of collapse, and now with the

> new puppet in the White House is leading to outright fascism. The Federal

> Reserve designed this disaster, why should we give them more power?

>

> Didn't mean to piss on anyone's parade, I didn't get much sleep.

>

>

>

>> Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:20:12 +1000

>> From: "Brendan Quinn" <bq at soundgardener.co.nz>

>> Subject: [kj] OT: Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on the

>> economic crisis

>> To: "'A list about all things Killing Joke \(the band!\)'"

>> <gathering at misera.net>

>> Message-ID: <2A08447174E44AB0AD0433DBCDBED5F9 at HeadHigh>

>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>>

>> Excellent analysis / 101 on the GFC - Global Financial Crisis - by Paul

>> Krugman.

>>

>>

>>

>> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1924996584154381146

>> <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1924996584154381146&ei=VMD4ScTGN5X

>> 8qAPEq6TpCw&q=economic+crisi>

>> &ei=VMD4ScTGN5X8qAPEq6TpCw&q=economic+crisi

>

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