FAR OUT! How Paul Krugman Finally Got His “Alien Invasion” Stimulus Package

Government waste and abuse was on full display this week when Politico discovered the existence of a secret Pentagon slush fund dedicated to investigating UFOs. As it turns out, the program was started at the behest of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and most of the $22 million it spent over the course of its three-year existence went to billionaire entrepreneur Robert Bigelow. To his credit, when confronted by reporters, Reid proudly owned up to his role in creating this X-Files program. He even acknowledged that “Bigelow inspired his own interest in UFOs” — though Politico additionally notes that “Bigelow was

Paul Krugman: “The Trump Economic Team Is Shaping up as a Gathering of Gold Bugs”

Paul Krugman tweets: Are people noticing that the Trump economic team is shaping up as a gathering of gold bugs? 1/ — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 That tweet is part of a recent series by Prof. Krugman divining glints of gold in the company of Donald Trump. He predominantly focuses on one of Trump’s appointments, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) for Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Krugman astutely points out that Mulvaney once observed that the Federal Reserve has “effective devalued the dollar” — hard to argue with when the dollar has lost 85 percent of its buying power

Paul Krugman Attacks Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan on Gold

Paul Krugman, from his New York Times perch on March 25 writing “Crazy About Money,” lets himself go nuts recycling his standard arguments against the gold standard. He throws some mud at presidential contender Ted Cruz and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Doesn’t stick. Krugman: … Mr. Cruz has staked out positions on crucial issues that are, not to put too fine a point on it, crazy. How can elite Republicans back him? […] And then there’s a subject dear to my heart: monetary policy. You might be surprised to learn that few of the subjects I write on inspire as

Ted Cruz Has the Best Idea in the Presidential Debate: A Return to the Gold Standard

The LA Times’s Michael Hiltzik recently wrote a column slamming the GOP field in general and one of the two front-runners, Ted Cruz, in particular: The worst idea in the presidential debate: a return to the gold standard. Mr. Hiltzik thereby joins with a lot of usual suspects, like Paul Krugman and Larry Summers, in the ridicule-heaping ritual. Such conduct is unbecoming of him and his headline and conclusions are contradicted by a lot of reliable data. There actually is abundant evidence that Ted Cruz’s proposal of the gold standard is the very best idea in the presidential debate so

The Anti-Science of William Jennings Bryan and Paul Krugman

From Forbes.com: July 9th was the anniversary of the most famous speech of any presidential campaign.  William Jennings Bryan, in a speech to the 1896 Democratic convention, declaimed “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” Although Bryan lost the general election to pro-gold William McKinley (and lost two other presidential races) that line still rings in the popular imagination.  It represents a handy epithet against the gold standard by those who are unfamiliar with its history or superior track record. As, in 1896, noted by The Nation and reprised there last week, rather surprisingly but for Karl Marx’s recognition that “money is by

Rand Paul Draws Liberal Fire Over Audit the Fed, Part Two

Sen. Rand Paul is drawing liberal fire from many left wing commentators, now including Prof. Paul Krugman.  Many of the criticisms are badly off base. As noted in yesterday’s column there is so much simply factually incorrect about The New Republic‘s Danny Vinik recent Rand Paul Has the Most Dangerous Economic Views of Any 2016 Candidate— for example — that one hardly knows where to begin. Vinik by no means is the only commentator to go into hyperbolic meltdown over Rand Paul. Nobel Prize economics laureate Paul Krugman, recently, in Money Makes Crazy: Right now, the most obvious manifestation of money madness