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Progressive Breakfast: Tax Cut Pushback
LiberalOasis : The Blog —
... Krugman blogs his concern: "we’re probably looking at a plan that will shave less than 2 percentage points off the average unemployment rate for the next two years, and possibly quite a lot less. This raises real concerns about whether the incoming administration is lowballing its plans in an attempt to get bipartisan consensus." ...
Robert L. Borosage: The Price of Consensus: Obama and congressional Republicans
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... But he's likely to pay a price both in delay and in diminished effectiveness for the plan that emerges. He'd be more likely to get a big and bold plan passed swiftly if he had put together his package, called on the Congress to pass it, invited Republicans to join or take the risk of standing in the way, while saving any concessions on business taxes until the end if he actually needed to round up the votes. I suspect that he'd have won just about as much Republican support that way. ...
I hope Paul Krugman is wrong too
Crooks and Liars —
Winning over Republican votes at the beginning of Obama's presidency should never be a priority if it forces him to compromise because Obama will be blamed for the failure.
Krugman on the stimulus package:
And that gets us to politics. This really does look like a plan that falls well short of what advocates of strong stimulus were hoping for — and it seems as if that was done in order to win Republican votes. Yet even if the plan gets the hoped-for 80 votes in the Senate, which seems doubtful, responsibility for the plan’s perceived ...
Weak Tea
Suburban Guerrilla —
Paul Krugman on the Obama stimulus practice:
This really does look like a plan that falls well short of what advocates of strong stimulus were hoping for — and it seems as if that was done in order to win Republican votes. Yet even if the plan gets the hoped-for 80 votes in the Senate, which seems doubtful, responsibility for the plan’s perceived failure, if it’s spun that way, will be placed on Democrats.
I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we’re talking about now, is crafted to win ...
Liberals Push Back on Weak Stimulus Bill
Firedoglake —
... Krugman struck back with this blog post - and admitted that he was being generous in his estimates of the efficacy of the plan as it stands. There are increasing signs of discontent from liberal supporters of Obama, precisely because this is a core asset of the liberal idea. It is one of those ideas that Republicans, such as the Heritage Foundation, constantly seek to discredit, because they would much rather have defense spending and tax cutting as the means of redistributing buying power from the future to the present, and they promote pro-cyclical policies: make the bubbles ...
Paul Krugman, the second-dumbest Nobel Prize winner alive*
Doug Ross @ Journal —
Paul Krugman is stupid. Capital S stupid. Ignorant as the day is long. He longs for senility, knowing it will increase his intelligence. Paul Krugman -- the second-dumbest Nobel Prize winner alive* -- claims that government spending, in the form of a gigantic stimulus package, can ...
Obama And Competence: The New New? Or The Same Old, Same Old?
Firedoglake —
... , nominated for the office of legal counsel at the DOJ? I have very high hopes of significant changes in respect and upholding the rule of law. For other folks? Let's just say I have a healthy skepticism until pleasantly surprised with something good. ...
Liberal Economists Skeptical of Obama Stimulus Package
MoJo Blog Posts: mojo —
... Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate and in-house economic lefty for the New York Times, wrote on his blog this week: ...
Obama: ‘If Paul Krugman has a good idea…then we’re going to do it.’
Think Progress —
... Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has been a frequent critic of President-elect Obama. During the primary season, he faulted Obama for saying there is a Social Security “crisis,” refusing to adopt a mandate in his health care proposals, and not fighting enough on “partisan issues.” In fact, today in his New York Times column, Krugman expresses skepticism at the effectiveness of Obama’s stimulus plan, in particular his tax cuts for businesses:
But right now we seem to be facing two major ...
Stimulus Spending Summary, By Category
Open Left - Front Page —
... I support the growing consensus that, while this is a start, overall there is not enough spending here. While it is an important and promising shift away from Bush-era governance, we need to aim even higher. ...
Stimulus Passage Unleashes Night of the Living Dead Republicans
Firedoglake —
... freezing in the dark in the midst of a snowstorm? Or make them take responsibility for the crumbling infrastructure? Obama has mobility right now because his approval numbers are solid. If they start to slip in a relentless GOP onslaught that the Democrats won't answer, and people start to associate their own personal struggles with what they hear in the zombie lies, those numbers won't hold.
There are many reasons for progressives to be happy with this bill, but as Paul Krugman, Jamie Galbraith, Dean Baker, Ian Welsh, Stirling ...
Nobody could have predicted....
Corrente —
Steve Benen:
By the time the president realized the minority party wanted nothing but tax cuts and spending cuts, it was too late to make the bill more ambitious.
Oopsie. Too bad reasoning from false premises sometimes has real-life consequences, eh? Read more…
While I'm Begging: What IS the Relationship between GDP & Unemployment?
Corrente —
... has already started -- and it's jobless, and that Wal-Mart's been cited, yet again, for not living up to workers' rights agreements, and I remember that, y'know, downsizing's been going on since Clinton was in the White House and offshoring isn't any less dangerous than stock panics, I start to wonder. . Now, given that source is about as GOP friendly as can be (witness this titbit on the health-care reform mess), what does that mean about this? And can this be tied into it somehow?
Is there any truth to Okun's law? How come this ...
Sunday Show Panelists Claim That Obama Has Never ‘Opposed His Liberals’
Think Progress —
... Stimulus: Progressive economists — including at least one Nobel Prize winner — warned that the President’s stimulus package was ...
The Uselessness of Paul Krugman
Pajamas Media —
... imagine poor Paul gazing out the window of his New York Times office searching for just one more quote, one more study, one more insight to help redeem his profession and his reputation in the wake of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Because in Krugman’s ivory tower and on the Times editorial board, economics still matters and no debate about stimulus packages or health care plans or financial regulation would be complete without his unique and important insights . He’s too big to fail and worth every word. And who could edit him anyway? He won a ...
Paul Krugman: Too-Small a Stimulus
J. Bradford DeLong's Grasping Reality with All Eight Tentacles —
... Paul Krugman: Stimulus arithmetic (wonkish but important): January 2009 : Bit by bit we’re getting information on the Obama stimulus plan, enough to start making back-of-the-envelope estimates of impact. The bottom line is this: we’re probably looking at a plan that will shave less than 2 percentage points off the average unemployment rate for the next two years, and possibly quite a lot less. This raises real concerns about whether the incoming administration is lowballing its plans in an attempt to get bipartisan consensus.... ...
links for 2009-10-04
J. Bradford DeLong's Grasping Reality with All Eight Tentacles —
... Paul Krugman (January 2009): Stimulus arithmetic (wonkish but important)
I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we’re talking about now, is crafted to win those extra GOP ...
The Fox News Sunday Panel Pans the Stimulus Package
Crooks and Liars —
Gee, who could have seen this one coming? I know, Paul Krugman. Stimulus arithmetic (wonkish but important) : Bit by bit we’re getting information on the Obama stimulus plan, enough to start making back-of-the-envelope estimates of impact. The bottom line is this: we’re probably looking at a plan that will shave less than 2 percentage points off the average unemployment rate for the next two years, and possibly quite a lot less. This raises real concerns about whether the incoming administration is lowballing its plans in an attempt to get bipartisan consensus. [....] I see the ...
Creating Jobs
The Glittering Eye —
... Was that the idea behind the stimulus bill? Or was it the idea that as the spender of last resort the federal government could stimulate the economy by spending money and a growing economy creates more jobs than a contracting one does? Judging by this comment circa January 2009 from stimulus fan Paul Krugman that certainly would appear to be the case. Onwards ...
