Eight NYYTimes Opinion Columnists Got Things Wrong, and They’re Telling You Why

[cigaretteman]

I did my research. I read, watched, I talked to the experts. I formed an opinion, and I wrote about it.

I was wrong.



I was wrong about inflation by Paul Krugman

I was wrong about Al Franken by Michelle Goldberg

I was wrong about capitalism by David Brooks

I

was wrong about the power of protest by Zeynep Tufekci

I wass wrong about Trump voters by Bret Stephens

I was wng about Chinese censorship by Thomas Friedman

I was wrong about Facebook by Farhad Manjoo

I was wrong about Mitt Romney by Gail Collins

 

[Finance85]

All those wrong opinion writers that we get spammed with daily.

 

[cigaretteman]

All those wrong opinion writers that we get spammed with daily.

And they're more often right than wrong.

 

[MikeyHawk]

And they're more often right than wrong.

Not sure that would define Krugman

 

[BioHawk]

Not sure that would define Krugman

You are confusing "I don't like what he says" with "he is wrong all the time". He's certainly correct more often than anyone who says "cutting taxes for the wealthy will fix the debt" all the time.

 

[seminole97]

You are confusing "I don't like what he says" with "he is wrong all the time". He's certainly correct more often than anyone who says "cutting taxes for the wealthy will fix the debt" all the time.

He’s a crackpot:

“If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack, and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months,”

 

[HostelAlfalfaWilcoxKeto]

Krugman?

 

[tarheelbybirth]

He’s a crackpot:

“If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack, and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months,”

So you don't think that massive worldwide govt spending and huge defense works projects employing hundreds of thousands of people would ameliorate a slump?

 

[seminole97]

So you don't think that massive worldwide govt spending and huge defense works projects employing hundreds of thousands of people would ameliorate a slump?

Correct.
It would not meet our needs.
It would result in a colossal waste of labor and resource we should apply to meet our actual needs.
We would be poorer as consequence of following Krugman’s advice.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” - Ike

 

[Finance85]

Not sure that would define Krugman

This ^
Krugman is a partisan hack.

 

[hwk23]

So you don't think that massive worldwide govt spending and huge defense works projects employing hundreds of thousands of people would ameliorate a slump?

It's a myth that wars are good for the economy. Unnecessary defense project spending or wars are inflationary because the spending even if it employs people doesn't produce goods or services. That may be impossible to avoid sometimes. Rations were used to control inflation in WW2.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

Correct.
It would not meet our needs.
It would result in a colossal waste of labor and resource we should apply to meet our actual needs.
We would be poorer as consequence of following Krugman’s advice.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” - Ike

It's a myth that wars are good for the economy. Unnecessary defense project spending or wars are inflationary because the spending even if it employs people doesn't produce goods or services. That may be impossible to avoid sometimes. Rations were used to control inflation in WW2.

WTF...the entire premise of the quote is that we know there are hostile aliens planning to attack. You can certainly make the claim that the threat is imaginary but that's based on your own biases and has no bearing on the idea proposed.

Of course, given the current level of denialism in the GOP, you'd discount an Independence Day scenario if it occurred and cheer when they blew up the White House.

 

[seminole97]

WTF...the entire premise of the quote is that we know there are hostile aliens planning to attack. You can certainly make the claim that the threat is imaginary but that's based on your own biases and has no bearing on the idea proposed.

Wrong.

Here is Krugman in 2013 on whether wastefulness in stimulus matters:

“This is the kind of environment in which Keynes’s hypothetical policy of burying currency in coalmines and letting the private sector dig it up – or my version, which involves faking a threat from nonexistent space aliens – becomes a good thing; spending is good, and while productive spending is best, unproductive spending is still better than nothing

 

[BioHawk]

He’s a crackpot:

“If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack, and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months,”

You have a funny way of saying "Nobel Prize Winner".

 

[Titanhawk2]

And they're more often right than wrong.

Their opinions are factually correct or they are Nastrodamus?

 

[tarheelbybirth]

Wrong.

Here is Krugman in 2013 on whether wastefulness in stimulus matters:

In case you missed it...that's not the quote referenced above. As stated, your bias is showing.

 

[IACub]

Oh great, eight paywalls.

 

[seminole97]

In case you missed it...that's not the quote referenced above. As stated, your bias is showing.

Your ignorance of his writings and his premise are what has been shown.

The government organizing useless spending will make us worse off.
Krugman contends otherwise.