Republicans are the New American Taliban, Paulson Lies
Notes From a Grumpy Old Man — ... Paul Krugman Kathleen Parker Clarence Page Today's consensus seems to be that the Republican Party at the Congressional level has not learned how to play with others. These old dogs may not be able to learn any new ...

Calling the intellectually bankrupt, well, bankrupt
Firedoglake — ... comes out strongly for the stimulus package and takes on the Republicans at the House Democrats’ retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia, you can see the full speech here. And not a moment too soon. After two weeks of ceding the debate to such economic experts as Joe Scarborough and Dick Morris actual economists and financial columnists come forth to review the GOP's mantra of tax cuts now, tax cuts tomorrow, takes cuts forever! Krugman: ...

About time!
Rising Hegemon — ... comes out strongly for the stimulus package and takes on the Republicans at the House Democrats’ retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia, you can see the full speech here. And not a moment too soon. After two weeks of ceding the debate to such economic experts as Joe Scarborough and Dick Morris actual economists and financial columnists come forth to review the GOP's mantra of tax cuts now, tax cuts tomorrow, takes cuts forever! Krugman: A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have ...

And after they gut it like a fish, it's guaranteed not to work
Brilliant at Breakfast — President Obama may have finally remembered again yesterday that he won the election, but his efforts at playing nice with people who play mean for keeps have helped petty Republicans and gutless Democrats in the Senate gut his stimulus package to the point that from an economic standpoint, it's unlikely to accomplish anything: Paul Krugman: Somehow, Washington has lost any sense of what’s at stake — of the reality that we may well be falling into an economic abyss, and that if we do, it will be very hard to get out again. It’s hard to exaggerate how ...

Hullabaloo — Quote Of The Day by tristero Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman:: The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge.

Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Daily Kos — Friday, at last! And now to the pundits. Paul Krugman: A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts. William Kristol: Thought you were done with me, huh? Not so fast. let me tell you a brilliant way for ...

Stimulus: Rushing Over the Cliff
The Moderate Voice — ... While we didn’t see a Senate vote Thursday night on the stimulus package, it seems that it will only be a temporary reprieve. On such an important issue it is unfortunate that both the political generals and the talking heads have succeeded in turning it into a political football. One of the most annoying pieces of “analysis” for the week comes to us from Paul Krugman. ...

Krugman: GOP Trying to Push Country Over the Edge
Suburban Guerrilla — ... such a disaster? Because falling demand and prices leads to a vicious circle (the so-called “trap”): wages and jobs are cut, leading to steep drops in demand and prices while the real value of debt rises, leading to a rising tide of corporate and household defaults that will only amplify the credit losses of financial institutions. The problems cycle, over and over. This will truly be the end of the American middle class as we’ve come to know it. So this is why Krugman is so anxious: We’re already closer to outright deflation than ...

Where Are We On The Stimulus?
TalkLeft — I again associate myself with the views of the Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman: Would the Obama economic plan, if enacted, ensure that America won’t have its own lost decade? Not necessarily: a number of economists, myself included, think the plan falls short and should be substantially bigger. But the Obama plan would certainly improve our odds. And that’s why the efforts of Republicans to make the plan smaller and less effective — to turn it into little more than another round of Bush-style tax cuts — are so ...

"What's The Rush?"
TalkLeft — ... Mika Brzezinski of the entertainment network MSNBC just asked that question about the economic stimulus plan. These people live in another world. The Beltway "bipartisan" BSers do not get it. At all. Apparently, Paul Krugman was on Morning Joe today. I did not see it so I do not know if he told them: ...

Silliness
Political Animal — SILLINESS.... Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told his colleagues , "If you started the day Jesus Christ was born and spent $1 million every day since then, you still wouldn't have spent $1 trillion." This, alas, is what constitutes a policy argument from Republican lawmakers lately. It's not that the recovery package lacks merit, it's that the legislation is big. And big bills should necessarily be rejected, because they're big. (Republican John Thune highlighted this point nicely the other day.) It's all quite mind-numbing, like having a debate over economic policy with an eight-year-old. Slowly but surely, a ...

BREAKING NEWS: 598,000 job losses in January
The Reaction — By Michael J.W. Stickings NYT: The country moved into its second year of uninterrupted job losses last month, with companies shedding another 598,000 jobs — the most since December 1974 — and the unemployment rate moving up to 7.6 percent, the Labor Department reported on Friday. Economists had forecast a loss of 540,000 jobs and a unemployment rate of 7.5 percent. The jobless rate is at its highest since September 1992. And yet the Republicans, as enraptured as ever by their ...

598,000 More Jobless In America, Unemployment Hits 7.6%
The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely — ... for these numbers, but at some point down the road he will be. Especially if they worsen. Here's where we stand today: For the last several months, analysts said, the United States has increasingly been trapped in a vicious circle of slumping consumer demand, falling business investment, mounting losses in the banking system, and rising unemployment, which was 7.2 percent in December. And what have our leaders been doing about it? Well, Krugman nails it here, if you ask me: A not-so-funny thing happened on the ...

Big Package Update
Shakesville — Krugman: On the Edge: "A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts." ...

Krugman: "It’s time for Mr. Obama to go on the offensive." And, it sounds like Obama is getting fired up.
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth — Sometimes, it seems like Paul Krugman is the only one who gets it. Admittedly, I'm a huge fan, but it seems like Krugman, not Geither and Summers, is the economic mind that can save our economy. He sure nails the absurdity of the current situation: ...

By, By Bipartisans
N/A — A few essential truths?  Obama is the only bipartisan being in DC.  Dems like being in charge.  And Republicans who took no notice of the Dems in minority?  “Republicans want bipartisanship now only because they are in the minority.“  Republicans now are willing to negotiate, just so long as they get everything they want.  If the donkeys don’t give the elephants all they want, then the Democrats are the problem. A good question: “How [is] bipartisanship [] ever going to work when one of the parties is insane“? This tragic comedy theater will ...

Progressive Breakfast: Moderates Squabble While Jobs Slip Away
LiberalOasis : The Blog — Progressive Breakfast is created for OurFuture.org, and is the morning roundup of what progressive movement members need to know to start the day. Nearly 600,000 Jobs Lost in January ALERT: AM Labor Dept. reports massive job loss: "Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply in January (-598,000 [jobs]) and the unemployment rate rose from 7.2 to 7.6 percent..." Robert Reich: "Senate Republicans and the Stimulus: Playing Politics When the Economy Burns " Cuts In Education, Energy, Transit, Health, Aid to State Govts Eyed by Moderates After GOP tax cut ...

Whaddaya mean, "we"?
Corrente — Krugman: Somehow, Washington has lost any sense of what’s at stake — of the reality that we may well be falling into an economic abyss, and that if we do, it will be very hard to get out again. It’s hard to exaggerate how much economic trouble we’re in. The crisis began with housing, but the implosion of the Bush-era housing bubble has set economic dominoes falling not just in the United States, but around the world. I think the Village has every sense of what's at stake: The lifestyle to which they have become accustomed -- which depends on the cuts ("campaign contributions", "consulting fees") they ...

Quote of the Quote of the Day
Shadow of the Hegemon — Gettin' Meta. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman:: The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge.Sums it up nicely. We've seen how far the Republican are willing to go to tear down the country around them in the service of the very people who put America into this mess. That the next step would be something just a bit more [i]drastic[/i] than Keynesian stimulus seems to elude them, focused as they are on protecting their ideology and what it apologizes for.

It’s Not Fear Mongering If…
Comments from Left Field — ... good faith dissent isn’t what’s going on here. Instead, Republicans are pushing the same old ideology with a little populist flavor and they are doing it mostly to embarrass the Democratic President. Funnier still, the ideas that they are pushing–cutting the bill and focusing more on tax cuts–are the very same ideas that are actually robbing the stimulus bill of its potency. Take it away Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman: A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two ...

Krugman Slaps Morning Joe With Truth; Tells Obama to Get on Offensive Before Catastrophe...
Brilliant at Breakfast — In today's New York Times Paul Krugman states some pretty stark realities about the edge we're teetering on: Somehow, Washington has lost any sense of what’s at stake — of the reality that we may well be falling into an economic abyss, and that if we do, it will be very hard to get out again. It’s hard to exaggerate how much economic trouble we’re in. The crisis began with housing, but the implosion of the Bush-era housing bubble has set economic dominoes falling not just in the United States, but around the world. I think ...

Clueless “Centrist” Senators Debate How to Make Stimulus Fail
Firedoglake — ... Paul Krugman today explains why the economy is teetering on the edge of a depression or a serious deflationary trap, but these Senators still don't get it. He then concludes: ...

Krugman: GOP Trying to Push Country Over the Edge of Catastrophe
Crooks and Liars — It's been surreal, watching this whole stimulus battle play out like a train wreck in slow motion. The pointless and naive attempts by Obama to find moderate Republican support (I'd think the main lesson of the last three decades is that there are no moderate Republicans - they just play them on TV!), the usual gang of right-wing radio hacks whipping listeners up into an anti-stimulus frenzy, the predictable inability of Democrats to recognize and constructively channel that populist anger - it would be nice to just pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep for another ten years or so. (Oh, if only!) The important point ...

MSNBC Host to Senator on 'No' Vote: Will You Take Blame When People Have to Stuff Cardboard in Shoes Like During the Depression?
NewsBusters.org - Exposing Liberal Media Bias — ... Throughout the interview, Brewer fired off a barrage of questions, implying that it was difficult to understand how anyone could oppose the bailout. She cited liberal bomb thrower and Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman's Feb. 6 op-ed in The New York Times as a reason for immediate and swift action on the nearly $1 trillion stimulus. ...

Time to Change the Stimulus Strategy
The Democratic Daily — The latest  job loss report is the “worst since December 1974.” In the last three months, 1.8 million have been lost and to put it in a bigger perspective, that’s “half of the 3.6 million jobs that have been lost since the beginning of 2008.” The bleak and very “gloomy job report” should ”put more pressure on Congress to pass an economic stimulus bill,” but Senate Republicans are still asking, “what’s the rush“? Paul Krugman notes, in the past couple of weeks we should have been having a “deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate ...

Economic Illiteracy in Congress
Comments from Left Field — Earlier today, Kyle wrote, in a post about the agreement reached in the Senate today: The funny thing is, if ever there was a time in which I would want to see the bill killed, now would be it. I’m not an economist, but the basis behind the stimulus package is not to save the government money, it’s to spend lots of money to jump start the economy. Economists who are monitoring the Keynesian approach have already expressed worry that the original price tag of the package wasn’t big enough, now it’s even smaller. Well, Kyle is spot on, and I’m very much hoping that at least ...

Remember When: Congress Passes $1.4 Trillion Economic Package
Crooks and Liars — As President Obama finally starts to fight for his economic stimulus bill, roadblock Republicans in the Senate continue to decry the price tag. While John Thune (R-SD) described how many times $1 trillion worth of $100 bills would circle the earth, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) proclaimed "Americans can't afford a trillion-dollar mistake." Of course, back in 2001, the GOP had no qualms (along with some invertebrate Democrats) in passing George W. Bush's much larger $1.4 trillion tax cut package. And as today's unending sea of red ink and unprecedented upward redistribution of wealth attest, the ...

Diary of a mad country
The Sideshow — Krugman says in his column that we're on the brink: "The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge." On his blog, he tells us What the centrists have wrought: "The short answer: to appease the centrists, a plan that was already too small and too focused on ineffective tax cuts has been made significantly smaller, and even more focused on tax cuts. [...] Now the centrists have shaved off $86 billion in spending - much of it among the most effective and most needed parts of the plan. In particular, aid to state governments, which are in ...

Today in The Nation: No More Mr. Nice Guy
The Nation: Top Stories — We can no longer afford post-partisan happy talk. We need straight talk from the President about how government spending is critical, now, for economic relief and revival. At this moment when our economy is cratering-- New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman writes ...

Sheri and Allan Rivlin: "If You Can Keep Your Head When All About You Are Losing Theirs"
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — Barack Obama was elected in large measure because when the financial crisis became public just before the first scheduled presidential debate, voters appreciated that rather than the normal fight or flight response expected in a crisis and exhibited by his rival, John McCain, Obama's response was calm and reasonable.  Right now much of the Washington political circles are in full fight or flight mode -- or the political variant, the fight or blame response.  No one should be surprised that Paul Krugman is frustrated that President Barack Obama has not accomplished more in his first three weeks in office, Krugman was impatient ...