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Quotational Therapy: Part 113 -- Paul Krugman.

Incorrectly Predicting Recessions Since 2002-

QandO Blog has a great post on the recent economic prognostications of a certain NYT columnist:

...consider the recent record of Paul Krugman.

* "right now it looks as if the economy is stalling..." — Paul Krugman, Sept. 20th, 2002

* "We have a sluggish economy, which is, for all practical purposes, in recession..." — Paul Krugman, May 29th, 2003

* "An oil-driven recession does not look at all far-fetched." — Paul Krugman, May 14th, 2004

* "a mild form of stagflation - rising inflation in an economy still well short of full employment - has already arrived." — Paul Krugman, April 18th, 2005

* "If housing prices actually started falling, we'd be looking at [an economy pushed] right back into recession. That's why it's so ominous to see signs that America's housing market ... is approaching the final, feverish stages of a speculative bubble." — Paul Krugman, May 27th, 2005

Will Krugman be right about a looming recession in 2007. Well, eventually, he has to be right.

Unfortunately, this sort of pooh-poohing of the robust American economy was not the exclusive territory of columnists and talking heads. Anchors and newspaper editors let this sort of pessimism seep into their "objective" stories over the past few years.

Which begins to explain why those who voted on the economy, voted for Democrats:

Sure, the economy wasn't the central issue of the 2006 massacre, but it's an issue that's never, ever far from voters' minds. To the extent that the economy influenced voters, it was actually a drag on GOP hopes.

A strong economy, harmful for the incumbent party's political chances. This is truly the stuff of the Twilight Zone.

Thanks, media.

Previous Quotational Therapy Session:

Pelosi

The right quote can be therapeutic, so tune in to WILLisms.com for quotational therapy on Monday and Friday.

Posted by Will Franklin · 8 December 2006 10:02 AM

Comments

Posted by: Ironman at December 10, 2006 09:46 PM