Sunday, June 24, 2012

Paul Krugman, "The Great Abdication": Whom Is Paul Trying to Protect?

Read Paul Krugman's latest New York Times op-ed, "The Great Abdication" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/opinion/krugman-the-great-abdication.html?_r=1&ref=opinion). Now read it a second time. What's missing?

Krugman begins his opinion piece by warning that the failure of Spanish banks could bring down the euro. Next, he criticizes the Federal Reserve for failing to take more aggressive action to seek price stability and full employment in the United States:

"Why won’t the Fed act? My guess is that it’s intimidated by those Congressional Republicans, that’s it’s afraid to do anything that might be seen as providing political aid to President Obama, that is, anything that might help the economy. Maybe there’s some other explanation, but the fact is that the Fed, like the European Central Bank, like the U.S. Congress, like the government of Germany, has decided that avoiding economic disaster is somebody else’s responsibility."

In short, Krugman is bemoaning a lack of leadership for the world's economic woes. And although he is quick to blame: 1) the Fed, 2) the European Central Bank, 3) the US Congress, and 4) the government of Germany, where is there any criticism of President Obama?

Krugman concludes:

"The fundamentals of the world economy aren’t, in themselves, all that scary; it’s the almost universal abdication of responsibility that fills me, and many other economists, with a growing sense of dread."

Yes, indeed, as the world economic order unravels, where is Obama? Answer: Seeking re-election, which takes precedence over all else, and reassigning the blame (to Bush, Congress, etc.) for his disastrous first four years in office, i.e. an abdication of responsibility if ever there was one.

Even a modicum of objectivity from Krugman? I suppose that would be asking too much.

No comments:

Post a Comment