Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Krugman on Trump

The following tweets came out shortly after President Trump's inauguration.  They're from Paul Krugman, the NYT's favorite Chinese-communist-loving economist.  I've held onto this pic for awhile and am writing this post on 3/12/17, scheduling it for 1/31/18.  How did he do?
Remember, this is the same man who said on election night, “If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.”
The Wall Street Journal, just now: Dow Surges 303 Points to Top 21000 for First Time. “The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 300 points to cross 21000 for the first time Wednesday, as investors embraced optimism from President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve officials. Stocks have soared since November, with the blue-chip index surpassing 19000, 20000—and now 21000—since Election Day.”

Stocks will drop sooner or later, of course, but that won’t vindicate Krugman, who claimed on election night that Trump’s election was an immediate economic and financial apocalypse.  link
Update, 10/17/17: Still the market goes higher, almost a year after the election.

Update, 11/12/17Krugman said the following in 1998: "By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's."  Yeah, he is clearly not someone whose prognostications are to be sought or valued.

Update, 12/19/17: Dow rises 5,000 points in a year for the first time ever

Update, 2/8/17:  It's not exactly about the market but is somewhat related; perhaps Krugman, who used to be an economist, can explain how this could happen:
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, dropping to its lowest level in nearly 45 years as the labor market tightened further, bolstering expectations of faster wage growth this year.
Sure, eventually the market will need a correction, and perhaps some of those new jobs will be lost.  Krugman's comments above, though, are factually incorrect.  He has gone from economist to political hack and, as I said above, is clearly not someone whose prognostications are to be sought or valued.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where’s the 2/2/18 update?

Steve USMA '85 said...

2/7/18 update: Up over 6,000 since Jan 2017 and then goes down 1,700. Yep, I'm happy with that.

Mike Thiac said...

2/8/18 update. Dow dropped 4% on 2/2/18. When did happen before:

In August, 2011, the Dow dropped 4.3 %. Who was president back then? Oh, yea, Barrack Hussein Obama, umm! umm! umm!

Later that month, the Dow dropped 5.5 %, after one of the great achievements of the prior administration, the downgrading of US soverign debt. Who was president back then? Oh, yea, Barrack Hussein Obama, umm! umm! umm!