Krugman – one unflinching Keynesian economist

Today employment in the US is lower than it was ten years ago, the stock market is lower than it was ten years ago. Keynesian economics has created a two tier society, with the investor-ownership class on one side and the working poor on the other.

Keynesianism has brought an end to the democratization of capital markets and helped to foster a politically inept society with less opportunities for fewer people. Before the advent of Keynesianism bubble economics occurred rarely and if it did it was linked to natural product cycles. Today bubble economics are part of the intricate mechanism of capital flows almost unhinged from natural product cycles and rather dependent on artificial and corrupt political initiatives.

US economist and Nobel laureate professor Krugman is a very outspoken representative of governement-spending-saved-the-world defenders of Keynesianism. In times he is so convinced by his ideas that he does not shy away from indulging policy makers with his nuggets of knowledge.

A good example for how far Mr. Krugman was willing to go, was his fierce attack of Germany finance minister Steinbrueck in December of last year. Steinbrueck warning of crass Keynesianism, in the midst of the largest government economic rescue effort in history, caught Mr. Krugman’s anger and earned Germany a collective boneheadedness from the professor.

Of course in the meantime more and more green-shoots are becoming evident and most national economies have stopped their abysmal plunge, with some even showing humble signs of growth in the second quarter. Mr. Krugman and other Keynesian economists find themselves now in a somewhat awkward position having to defend themselves over their radical support for stimulus.

Professor Krugman ventures deep into wonkish territory in his defense for deficit spending and why we should not fear it in the context of higher interest rates. Interest rates are of course important because as a discount to future earnings they are the most important factor in determining our wealth. Deficits and interest rates are the topic of one of his most wonkish blog posts in the New York Times to date.

The core of professor Krugman’s post is a positive correlation between GDP and interest rates and a negative correlation between interest rates and deficits. The core fallacy of Keynesians is what follows, lower GDP merits higher deficit spending and nobody needs to fear high interest rates because they are inversely correlated and therefore lower with higher deficits. This is despite the fact that most would acknowledge that deficit spending is inflationary.

chart shows neg. correlation btw. T-Note interest rates and government deficit spending

Most economic formulas (S-I = G-T is the one Professor Krugman is using), to the contrary what economist want you to believe, are not universally true laws of nature like a physical law or even most scientific laws. Economists of course believe that the only true science is economics.

In mathematics a formula about events at some future time-horizon always acknowledges uncertainty of a predicted outcome inherent in its logical argument. Economists though using mathematics merely extrapolate a present situation into some future time-horizon rather than acknowledging uncertainty. In other words they think what is true now has to be true also in the future. It seems to me that Keynesians are the world’s champion in extrapolating the facts ad infinitum.

The problem is not i.f., deficit spending. The problem is rather not knowing when its enough and when to withdraw, not knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em is the real problem. It is this uncertainty that’s inherent in their economic formulas and yet they do not account for it. Keynesians live for the here and now, they completely discount the future. The crisis of 2007,08,09 should be proof enough that it can’t be done.

Economists are wrong about the economy nine out of ten times. Some Keynesians think they are right because they have not been wrong so far. I got news for ya, not being caught with a lie is not the same thing as telling the truth.