Paul Krugman: America the Tarnished

[ProSense]

Paul Krugman: America the Tarnished

The financial crisis has damaged our global authority, credibility, and leadership, and that will make it much harder for the world to accomplish the essential task of coordinating a common response:

America the Tarnished, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: Ten years ago the cover of Time magazine featured Robert Rubin,... Alan Greenspan,... and Lawrence Summers... Time dubbed the three “the committee to save the world,” crediting them with leading the global financial system through a crisis..., 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. ... The United States, everyone thought, was the country that knew how to do finance right.

How times have changed..., ... 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. ...

Simon Johnson..., who served as the chief economist at the IMF..., declares that America’s current difficulties are “shockingly reminiscent” of crises in places like Russia and Argentina — including the key role played by crony capitalists.

In America as in the third world, he writes, “elite business interests — financiers, in the case of the U.S. — played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive.”

It’s no wonder, then, that an article in yesterday’s Times about the response President Obama will receive in Europe was titled “English-Speaking Capitalism on Trial.”

Now, in fairness ... the United States was far from being the only nation in which banks ran wild. Many European leaders are still in denial about the continent’s economic and financial troubles, which arguably run as deep as our own... Still, it’s a fact that the crisis has cost America much of its credibility, and with it much of its ability to lead.

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[willing dwarf]

1. I've been saying the same thing

but when Krugman says it, it carries a little more weight. Guess that's what a column at the NYTimes and Nobel Prize will get you.

[ClarkUSA]

2. Wow, and Krugman worked for Reagan and Enron... how ironic that he should diss others.

[firedupdem]

3. Someone said that to me yesterday. He seems to have some

personal issues with this President.

[w4rma]

4. I've noticed that defenders of the "bailout the thieves" plan can't defend the plan so you attack

the messengers, personally.

[mkultra]

5. well, since that was TARP and a bush policy

im surprised your finding any true defenders at all.

[girl gone mad]

12. Obama lobbied harder for TARP than Bush did..

and the Geithner plan is even worse than TARP in several ways.

Just saying...

[ProSense]

13. That's nonsense. n/t

[girl gone mad]

16. Ummm... no,

it's not:

Obama Lobbies for TARP Funds, Stimulus Plan

President-elect Barack Obama told Democratic senators in a closed lunch today that he needs the second $350 billion authorized by Congress as part of the TARP legislation last year and that he'll veto any move by Congress to cut that funding off.

And Obama was not the only member of the incoming administration trying to sell his plan to Democrats today on Capitol Hill.

Larry Summers, the incoming leader of Obama's National Economic Council, met this morning with Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee to get more of their input on the $700 billion plus the stimulus package, a separate bill to inject capitol in the economy. It was Summers' third meeting with Democratic senators in five days on the stimulus proposal, which includes tax measures and infrastructure spending that Obama wants to pass early this year.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Economy/Story?id=6638175&page=1

[ProSense]

17. Um, that doesn't say anything remotely similar to what you said. n/t

[girl gone mad]

18. Obama lobbied harder for TARP than Bush did.

He threatened to VETO any legislation preventing him from getting the other half of the TARP.

I was also around when the original TARP debates were going on. Obama made several personal phone calls to flip votes in the Senate.

Combined, this is definitely more than Bush did, but he was a lame duck who had already tuned out for the most part.

[Barack_America]

6. And you think that Krugman is not personally attacking Obama?

Who exactly first made this personal?

You seem to be unaware of the personal agenda of Paul Krugman. Again I link this piece:

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Paul_Krugman_Has_Never_Liked_Obama_6756.html

I think the background contained within could be useful for you.

[paulk]

8. um... Paul Hogarth?

Who the fuck is Paul Hogarth?

And why should we care what he thinks?

Or perhaps I should say - why should we care what some unknown writer from some unknown alternative rag thinks compared to what a Nobel Prize winning economist who writes a column for the NY Times thinks?

[skooooo]

7. I think it's time for Krugman to STFU.

I'm getting sick of hearing his monolithic negativity.

[TayTay]

9. This compounds the difficulty the President will have at the G20 this week

America has lost a lot of credibility since September and the near-collapse of the financial system. We created a lot of the problems and exported the risk all over the world.

I don't envy the President's task this week. The first face-to-face meeting with the Chinese representative should be extremely interesting. Sigh!

[glitch]

10. I don't think Krugman is saying anything the rest of the world doesn't already know.

Americans seem to be having a hard time with the realization though, not surprising.

[chimpymustgo]

11. Boom goes the dynamite...

[TayTay]

21. American credibility is at a dangerously low point

I think the war in Iraq and the revelations about mistreatment of prisoners and torture were a blow to American prestige worldwide. The recession/depression (depending on where you live) is also seen as an American-borne disease.

I am not sure that Americans realize that the rest of the world is this angry at them. I think the G20 might just be a wake-up call on this front.

[Phx_Dem]

14. Go fuck yourself Krugman. n/t

[Occam Bandage]

15. Funny how he mentions Obama 3 times, and Bush 0 times.

Oh, wait, not funny. It's Krugman.

[Telly Savalas]

19. You find it strange that he'd spend more time discussing the current president

than the ex-president?

You also neglect to mention that 1 mentioning of Obama was positive and 2 were neutral.

[Forkboy]

27. Yes, it's stunning that he talks in the present tense.

:eyes:

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

20. I just read the entire column and as per usual there is lots of negativity

and not so much in the way offering any solutions. I wish I could just sit back all day and snipe at all of the workers around me too...

[Roadless]

22. Paul Krugman, throwing sand on beached whales

....as people scramble to figure out a solution to get them back to sea.

[Sultana]

23. Wow, is GDP now Krugman:GDP?

:shrug:

[Telly Savalas]

24. Krugman as usual is wrong.

Everything is hunky-dory. European leaders are wise not to take any action to combat this imaginary "financial crisis" and "severe recession". Obama is going to be an idiot when he asks the European leaders to do more. If you just walk around the streets of any rust belt town, they'll talk your ear off about how great the economy is doing. I don't understand why anybody has anything negative to say.

[JayMusgrove]

25. Love your sarcasm!!!!!!!!!!

Obama will be such a hit in Europe, and those folks never heard of Paul Krugman!!!!!!!!

[Telly Savalas]

26. Krugman's on Obama's side with respect to this issue.

No sarcasm here.