Paul Krugman Quotes
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Until the Great Depression, most economists clung to a vision of capitalism as a perfect or nearly perfect system. That vision wasn’t sustainable in the face of mass unemployment, but as memories of the Depression faded, economists fell back in love with the old, idealized vision of an economy in which rational individuals interact in perfect markets.
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Many people ... prefer to describe themselves as progressives rather than liberals. To some extent that's a response to the decades-long propaganda campaign conducted by movement conservatives, which has been quite successful in making Americans disdain the word liberal but much less successful in reducing support for liberal policies.
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Under the gold standard America had no major financial panics other than in 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893, 1907, 1930, 1931, 1932, and 1933.
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So what are the effects of increasing minimum wages? Any Econ 101 student can tell you the answer: The higher wage reduces the quantity of labor demanded, and hence leads to unemployment.
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The public has no idea that the deficit has been falling like a stone.
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The trouble with poverty, as an issue, is that it has basically exhausted the patience of the general public.
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In America, at least, we have a pretty good record for behaving in a fiscally responsible fashion, with one exception - namely, the fiscal irresponsibility that prevails when, and only when, hard-line conservatives are in power.
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When stock prices are rising, it's called ''momentum investing''; when they are falling, it's called ''panic.''
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Bad ideas flourish because they are in the interest of powerful groups.
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I really think that people have to think safety; taking risks for higher yield is a bad idea once you're in late or latish middle age.
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I think Stockman is an interesting sort of amalgam.
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Debt increases that didn't arise either from war or from extraordinary financial crisis are entirely associated with hard-line conservative governments.
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If you look at United States history since World War II, you find that of the 10 presidents who preceded Barack Obama, seven left office with a debt ratio lower than when they came in. Who were the three exceptions? Ronald Reagan and the two George Bushes.
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Something terrible has happened to the soul of the Republican Party. We've gone from bad economic doctrine. We've even gone beyond selfishness and special interests. At this point we're talking about a state of mind that takes positive glee in inflicting further suffering upon the already miserable.
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...instead it seems that business - like weight loss - is a subject wherein hope and fear inspire limitless gullibility.
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The planet will continue to cook.
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Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet. If you’ve been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we’re hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it.
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Friedrich Hayek is not an important figure in the history of macroeconomics.
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Outrageous fiscal mendacity is neither historically normal nor bipartisan. It’s a modern Republican thing.
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The fact is that the two years or so after 9/11 were a terrible time in America – a time of political exploitation and intimidation, culminating in the deliberate misleading of the nation into the invasion of Iraq. It’s probably worth pointing out that I’m not saying anything now that I wasn’t saying in real time back then, when Bush had a sky-high approval rating and any criticism was denounced as treason. And there’s nothing I’ve done in my life of which I’m more proud.
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If the price of everything is going down, that's going to include wages as well. People will have an incentive to sit on their cash and not spend it.
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What Republicans have actually put on the table is almost nothing. All of the rest is just big talk. So how is the president supposed to negotiate with people who say, 'Here's my demands. By the way, I can't give you any specifics. Just make me happy'?
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So, very early reports are that Obamacare exchanges are, as expected, having some technical glitches on the first day - maybe even a bit worse than expected, because it appears that volume has been much bigger than predicted. Here’s what you need to know: this is good, not bad, news for the program... Lots of people logging on and signing up on the very first day... is an early indication that it’s going to be fine, that plenty of people will sign up for the first year of health reform.
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The Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality.