Tag: Krugman

The poverty of economic history

2nd December 2008

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Image source: recessionhistory.info

The biggest problem with governments is that they are run by politicians whose first concern is the electoral cycle. The second biggest problem is that these politicians tend to have advisors with economics degrees from top universities where the economic history courses have limited appeal alongside the finance-oriented courses that are viewed as ‘hard science’. It is for this reason that history repeats itself as governments do not learn from previous mistakes. The fact that Paul Krugman feels compelled to write an article in the IHT today defending the case for a large fiscal deficit is testimony to this, as is the almost apologetic way the Rudd government in Australia has mentioned the ‘d’ word in recent days.

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Krugman on ‘An Inconvenient Truth’

26th May 2006

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Image source: www.lessig.org

In the New York Times today, there is an excellent op-ed piece from Paul Krugman (password required) on the Al Gore movie that is currently making a lot of people shift uncomfortably in their seats of corporate power in the US (particularly those with links to the fossil fuel industries). The speculation continues as to whether this film will be sufficient to resurrect Gore as a presidential candidate. I hope for all our sakes that it does. (The Krugman article is reproduced in full below.)

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The good oil on oil

10th May 2004

An article published in the New York Times last week has caused quite a stir. The Oil Crunch by Paul Krugman (reproduced below) makes reference to real reason for the Iraq war; viz. control over oil prices, and how things have backfired somewhat in that there is less security over the supply of oil than ever. The more important point he makes is that attempts to keep oil prices low would have only been temporary anyway because of the rapidly increasing demand for oil in the face of dwindling supplies. The Saudis might argue otherwise, but Krugman concludes that it’s time to stop drilling and look for alternatives. (Access to the NYT is password controlled, but registration is free.)

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Will they get away with it?

6th June 2003

Following hot on the heels of Paul Krugman’s June 3 piece in the New York Times, I was heartened to hear, on ABC radio this morning, US Congressmen seriously questioning the integrity of US intelligence reports on Iraq’s WMD.

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Krugman on global warming

18th April 2003

I’m not a huge Krugman fan, but his piece, Rejecting the World, in yesterday’s New York Times is a classic. Criticising the right for stymieing what was a pretty weak plan on global warming in the first place, Krugman concludes that …

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