America the Tarnished - Krugman

[groovedaddy]

Ten years ago the cover of Time magazine featured Robert Rubin, then Treasury secretary, Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Lawrence Summers, then deputy Treasury secretary. Time dubbed the three “the committee to save the world,” crediting them with leading the global financial system through a crisis that seemed terrifying at the time, although it was a small blip compared with what we’re going through now.

All the men on that cover were Americans, but nobody considered that odd. After all, in 1999 the United States was the unquestioned leader of the global crisis response. That leadership role was only partly based on American wealth; it also, to an important degree, reflected America’s stature as a role model. The United States, everyone thought, was the country that knew how to do finance right.

How times have changed.

Never mind the fact that two members of the committee have since succumbed to the magazine cover curse, the plunge in reputation that so often follows lionization in the media. (Mr. Summers, now the head of the National Economic Council, is still going strong.) Far more important is the extent to which our claims of financial soundness — claims often invoked as we lectured other countries on the need to change their ways — have proved hollow.

Indeed, these days America is looking like the Bernie Madoff of economies: for many years it was held in respect, even awe, but it turns out to have been a fraud all along.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/opinion/30krugman.html?th&emc=th

[seemslikeadream]

1. a fraud all along.

[HughMoran]

2. Interesting that Krugman quotes Summers ca 2000, but when someone tried to quote Krugman from 2000

...they were taken to the wood shed for using "old articles" to "tarnish" his reputation.

Double standards abound - it's fascinating to watch these discussions play out on DU.

[girl gone mad]

6. Exaggerate much?

They weren't "taken to the wood shed" and your post is nonsense.

That person cherry-picked one paragraph from an article several pages long to make it appear as if Krugman was making an argument that he wasn't making. The piece had almost nothing to do with financial regulation (which Krugman was clearly for at the time). In the full piece, Krugman stared that economists don't always understand the cause of many downturns and warnede that we were certain to face unforseen crises.

It was a rather lame attempt to tarnish Krugman, since the points he made in the Fortune piece were actually basically accurate.

[Democrats_win]

3. Our problems began when a "Moran" became president.

It's ok to blame these men, but first blame the "morans" who put "gentelman" "C-nothing" into office. Dont' forget he wasted trillions in Iraq and then borrowed from our enemy (communist China) to pay for it. And what else did we get from such a fine upstanding example as George W. Bush? People opening fire on patients at a nursing home. Thank-you, conservatives, you did a heck of a job.

BTW: Don't forget China killed Americans in Korea. THEY will always be our enemy.

[tama]

4. You

will be allways your own worst enemy. Never forget that, when thou projects too much...

[Klukie]

5. I think our problems began way before the moran.....

although he had a hand in exacerbating it.

[groovedaddy]

7. "THEY will always be our enemy"...following your logic, the southern states will always be the

"enemy" of the union...Japan and Germany will always be our enemies, Great Britain...do I have to keep going here or do you get the point?
And yes, Bush did exsacerbate the problem, but its roots go further back.