Today's 'Paul Krugman Hoisted On His Own Petard', Self-Beclownment Edition

Is there a more hilarious propagand-conomist than Paul "The Problem with Keynesian Economics Is That We're Not Borrowing Enough" Krugman? I don't mean his looks. Ignore the elf-boy physique, concentrate on his record.

He's got enough face-plant-style failures to shame Milli Vanilli.

Today, Krugman is crying doom-and-gloom for the Euro, predicting bank runs, dogs and cats sleeping together, total fiscal apocalypse -- all thanks to the failed Eurosocialist welfare state. But it wasn't too long ago that Elf-Boy was championing the Eurozone...

• In "The Comeback Continent" (Jan. 2008), Krugman told us that the Eurozone was a bulwark of the world economy, worthy of emulation by the U.S.:

The G.D.P. of the European Union is roughly comparable to that of the United States; the euro is almost as important a global currency as the dollar; and the governance of the world financial system is, for practical purposes, equally shared by the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve.

But there’s another thing: it’s important to get the facts about Europe’s economy right because the alleged woes of that economy play an important role in American political discourse, usually as an excuse for the insecurities and injustices of our own society...

...What European countries definitely haven’t done is dismantle their strong social safety nets. Universal health care is a given. So are a variety of programs that support families in trouble, helping protect Europeans from the extreme poverty all too common in this country. All of this costs money — even though European countries spend far less on health care than we do — and European taxes are very high by U.S. standards.

In short, Europe continues to be a big-government sort of place. And that’s why it’s important to get the real story of the European economy out there.

According to the anti-government ideology that dominates much U.S. political discussion, low taxes and a weak social safety net are essential to prosperity. Try to make the lives of Americans even slightly more secure, we’re told, and the economy will shrivel up — the same way it supposedly has in Europe.

But the next time a politician tries to scare you with the European bogeyman, bear this in mind: Europe’s economy is actually doing O.K. these days, despite a level of taxing and spending beyond the wildest ambitions of American progressives.

• In "Why Oil Isn't Gold" (May 2008), Krugman told us how useless gold is as a store of value and, in "Wingnuts, wingnuts everywhere", he openly mocked gold-bugs.

Based on my analysis, a Ouija Board would do a far better job at predicting macroeconomic events than the embarrassment known as Krugman.