Krugman: Delusions of Wonkhood

[ProSense]

Delusions of Wonkhood

Dave Weigel has some fun with credulous journalists who are sure that Paul Ryan must be a Very Serious Wonk because — wait for it — he uses PowerPoint. With pie charts!

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Look, I know wonks. Ryan is not a wonk. Yes, he likes charts and slides. But he very clearly doesn’t know what his numbers actually mean. When the famous plan was unveiled, it was quite clear that he never even realized that the Heritage projection of his plan’s impact made a completely ridiculous assertion about what would happen to unemployment. Nor did he realize that his assumptions about discretionary spending would require cutting such spending — including defense! — to levels not seen since Calvin Coolidge.

One question one might ask is whether Ryan is aware that he isn’t actually a wonk, that he just plays one on TV. Maybe not; some of what he says suggests the Dunning-Kruger effect at work,: he may be so innumerate that he doesn’t realize that he has no idea what the numbers he throws around mean. And after all, why would he, given all the praise he’s received for putting up a line graph or pie chart here and there?

If the fate of the republic weren’t at stake, it would be funny — and painfully embarassing.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/delusions-of-wonkhood/

[On the Road]

1. My Reply on the NYT Site:

Ryan's economic policy is just hilariously inept. He seems to think that the straightforward results of his proposals can be just papered over with platitudes. If Romney had any economic sense and any control over the situation, he would never turn Ryan loose like he has.

Conservative economics used to be championed by real academics like Milton Friedman. Now it seems to be the domain of gold bugs, Fed conspiracy theorists, social Darwinists, and shoot-from-the-hip financiers like Romney.

I don't think Romney is as bad as he's often depicted. But every businessman thinks he's an economist, and the two are very, very different disciplines. What's worse, every financier thinks he can run a business rather than just find ways to profit from it. You could make the argument that Romney's background is one of the worst for a potential leader of the US economy.