Paul Krugman Borrows from Big Brother
Readers of George Orwell’s 1984 might recall Big Brother’s claims that “war is peace” or “freedom is slavery.” Orwell was writing a novel, but some of the commentary these days makes me think that elite economists have taken residence in Oceania’s “Ministry of Truth.”
Today, the champion—the uncontested champion of Orwell’s “truth”—is Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel laureate, Princeton professor, and New York Times columnist. For those who read his twice-weekly column or glance at his blogs and commentary elsewhere, it is like reading the latest pronouncements from the “Ministry of Truth,” and, like in Oceania, it seems that the masses believe the nonsense.
Had I not read Krugman’s column, I never would have known that Jimmy Carter, who began the modern deregulation movement, was a right-wing Republican, or that the solution to almost all our economic ills is for the government to raise taxes, borrow, and print more money. However, his latest missive has managed even to outdo the Ministry of Truth itself. Big Brother would have been ecstatic.
There is not enough byte space in the universe to refute Krugman’s latest pronouncement completely, but a couple of the most glaring holes can be discussed here.
As most readers know, the U.S. Dollar has been falling fast against other currencies and members of OPEC are balking at continuing to price crude oil exclusively in dollars. Instead, they have suggested a “basket” of currencies, as they realize that our government’s policies are likely to turn the USD into something like the Zimbabwean Dollar.
Enter Professor Krugman, who writes:
The truth is that the falling dollar is good news. For one thing, it’s mainly the result of rising confidence: the dollar rose at the height of the financial crisis as panicked investors sought safe haven in America, and it’s falling again now that the fear is subsiding. And a lower dollar is good for U.S. exporters, helping us make the transition away from huge trade deficits to a more sustainable international position.
Not so fast. The USD is falling because the rest of the world understands that the USA no longer is a “safe haven” and investors looking elsewhere. When super investors like Jim Rogers tell us to get out of this country altogether, people need to listen. Rogers does not have a Nobel to his credit, but he is no crackpot and he fully understands (unlike some American Ph.D.s) that the U.S. Government does not create wealth with the printing press.
While it is true that a falling dollar does make U.S. exports cheaper, the question is what can we export other than commodities. The government’s environmental policies alone continue to raise the cost of manufacturing and we are being forced by the political classes to divert productive resources into failed enterprises like General Motors and the zombie financial institutions on Wall Street.
Alas, Krugman does not stop there. No, he claims that what our economy “desperately” needs is—get this—more “easy credit.” That is right; the very thing that gave us massive malinvestments and brought the U.S. economy to near-ruin is what we “desperately” need. As I have written elsewhere, this is like claiming that the best way to deal with alcohol addiction is to imbibe even more.
For all the talk that the government’s policies of bailouts, printing money, and borrowing at record rates have “prevented” a second Great Depression, the truth is that all the government has done is to give the illusion of recovery while setting us up for an even worse Day of Reckoning. By keeping the zombie entities afloat, the government continues to force even more malinvestments at a time when liquidation is the order of the day.
The Keynesian propositions of printing money and borrowing might be popular to the political and intellectual “elites” of this country, but they are utterly destructive in the real world. Unfortunately, we are being fed Orwellian “truths” at a time when what we need to hear is the unadulterated truth.
