Paul Krugman visits Japan, evaluates government policies
Earlier this morning, Fuji TV news aired a segment in which they followed around Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman as he visited Tokyo:
As you might be able to tell from the background music, Krugman was given the treatment of a economic genius who might be able to save Japan with his magical Nobel Jedi powers. Unfortunately, he was a mere human, and didn’t have any simple advice that could make the economic depression go away in the blink of an eye.
He did, however, give an evaluation of some of the economic stimulus policies the Japanese government has tried:
- Lowering expressway tolls to a fixed fee of 1,000 yen – 40/100 points. This might only increase sales of gasoline, and will cause traffic jams.
- 12,000 yen in free money to every resident – 0/100 points. Krugman notes that similar policies have been tried in America and have achieved nothing.
- Giving “eco points” to consumers who buy environmentally friendly appliances – Still under evaluation. As there are few details available about the final form this plan will take, Krugman cannot give it a score. (But he does find the idea interesting.)
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Hilarious! Before his Nobel on two-decade old research, Krugman was known as the guy “who predicted 9 of the last 2 recessions.” In other words, a self-promoting Chicken Little-type. You might as well get economic advice from Pan-kun.
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I’d believe Pan-kun’s economic advuice than this guy
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OMG! SHUN THE NONBELIEVER. KRUGMAN’S AUTHORITY IS ABSOLUTE. HIS STAR WARS BACKGROUND MUSIC IS CONVINCING ENOUGH. SHUT UP.
Well, if you’d believe a chimp’s economic advice more than a Nobel recipient, what does that say about you?
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@Richard That’s pretty ridiculous. I’d prefer someone who told me a tsunami was coming 9 times and got it right twice over someone who never gets it right. Even with that track record, you’re still wise to get off the beach.
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Yes right, but if this guy was a mind reader he wouldn’t get a lot of customers.
If he is so good, why isn’t he the finance minister of his own country?
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Partly because he doesn’t want to be involved in politics, and partly because he’s more left-wing than either Republican and Democrat candidates. Krugman actually has a lot more sense than the blind believers in the free market Greenspan and Bernanke put together. Sadly, as much as Krugman is regarded as a Jedi master in Japan, Greenspan and Bernanke are regarded as Jedi masters in the US.
People who have no idea how things work are prone to looking for Jedi masters.
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@Andrew: Really? If every year someone told you there was a tsunami coming and was only right a tiny fraction of the time, you would consider that helpful? If a weather forecaster told you there would be tornadoes every week, would you really go to him for weather advice? Sure, he might be right a couple times a year, but the rest of the time the sun is shining and you’re hiding in your basement.
In the world of finance, being bearish in a bull market will lose you money just as surely as being bullish in a bear market. The key is to be correct more than half the time. Krugman does not have such a track record.
Twenty years ago he was a serious economist who wrote scholarly papers about rather arcane aspects of the financial system. The fact that it took the Nobel committee twenty years to recognize Krugman’s work gives you a hint as to its minor importance.
It’s been a long time since Krugman has been a serious economic scholar. He’s a columnist and pundit now, living off his reputation. But as I said before his track record of predictions in the last decade is less that 50% accurate, so you are literally better off flipping a coin or as I said above, consulting Pan-kun.
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Go go the Jewish-Zionist global domination…
Sorry I couldn’t help =D
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