As I understand it, matching Paul Krugman's macroeconomic wits against those of Joe Scarborough is, along with cock fighting and child abuse, illegal in all the civilized states, which is why, I suppose, Mr. Scarborough has had to humiliate himself by running to Daddy.
This is almost too pathetic. Hear Joe roar. Well, hear his ghostwriter roar, anyway, as Joe himself quivers behind the fact sheets and talking points of this literally Randian bogeyman. Yet even here, you will note, what Krugman and other mainstream economists are arguing is never actually refuted. The counterargument presented is mostly an appeal to fear, interspersed with frequent modifiers and maybes.
Scarborough's austerity-love is pretty basic stuff--nothing you haven't already heard or read a thousand times elsewhere, and in practice has been exposed as a macroeconomic fraud. Even the stenographic angst of Joe's ghostwriter can't conceal that. Yet Joe splendidly rises to the occasion in classic Scarboroughesque form, and concludes with this imperial flourish:
Anyone who suggests [we're wrong] operates well outside the mainstream of where serious economists reside.
There! Take that!
So that's his argument? "I'm wrong and you're right so there!" Funny how the people who are the most in favor of austerity are the same ones that would be the least affected by it like tv personalities who make seven figure salaries wagging their finger at everyone else to tighten their belts.
Posted by: AnneJ | February 16, 2013 at 05:00 PM
Scarborough's knowledge about economics is matched by my own knowledge of Haute Couture. And our opinions on these diverse subjects carry equal weight.
Posted by: Peter G | February 17, 2013 at 08:19 AM