Contra Krugman

Contra Krugman


Latest Episodes

Ep. 135 Evil Fossil Fuel People Are Keeping Renewable Energy Down!
April 21, 2018

Krugman says renewable energy is getting less expensive and more realistic as a power option all the time, and that the only thing standing in the way are shills for the various fossil-fuel industries. Really?

Ep. 134 Liberals Are Honest, Aren't Bootlickers, and Admit Their Mistakes, Unlike Krugman's Stupid and Evil Enemies
April 12, 2018

In this column Krugman suggests that the decline in the moral and scholarly rigor of conservative intellectuals has to do with the intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party, which has no interest in science or truth. So to get ahead or even to be he

Ep. 133 Protectionism Doesn't Cause Depressions, But Here's What It Does Do
April 08, 2018

Opponents of protectionism sometimes misrepresent what the real danger of it is. It isn't going to cause a depression or mass unemployment. But it does do something -- beyond just raising domestic prices -- that undermines everyone's standard of living.

Ep. 132 The Phillips Curve and Keynesian La-La Land: The Alleged Relationship Between Unemployment and Inflation
March 31, 2018

Krugman insists on the validity of the Phillips Curve, which purports to show an inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation, but the causal mechanism Krugman sees between them is straight out of Keynesian la-la land.

Ep. 131 Trade and Tariffs, and Should We Fear a Strong Dollar?
March 23, 2018

Krugman says Trump is surrounded by people who are wrong on trade: first, the neo-mercantilists, who view trade as a zero-sum game of winners and losers, and second, "neo-goldbugs," who favor a strong dollar and won't concede the merits of a weak currency

Ep. 130 Contra Robert Reich
March 19, 2018

Today we branch out a bit and take on one of Robert Reich's popular (but obviously simplistic) videos about what's gone wrong with the economy. Why, we once had strong labor unions, education, and health care, and then big money corrupted politics and we

Ep. 129 Trump's Tariffs Are Bad (and So Is Krugman)
March 14, 2018

Trump's tariffs are bad economics, so Krugman isn't entirely wrong, but his cheerleading for some of the well-known trade agreements needs the gentle correction we're known for on this show....

Ep. 128 The Destructive Idiocy of "Modern Monetary Theory"
March 05, 2018

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is gaining traction. Its adherents think it's just common sense, but it's actually destructive nonsense. Why, governments can never "run out of money," because they have a printing press! OK, it's a little more sophisticated t

Ep. 127 Krugman Is Half Right: He Says Half the Political Class Are Liars
February 24, 2018

Krugman insists that Republicans are unique in refusing to admit to making mistakes, lying about their intentions, etc. Of course, these are characteristics of the entire regime, but Krugman, who is deeply tied to that regime, can never admit this. Bob an

Ep. 126 Deficit Hawks Are Hypocrites (Says Krugman, Who Is 100% Not a Hypocrite)
February 16, 2018

Krugman can't believe Republicans who worried about deficits under Obama -- when, according to Keynesianism, we needed deficits to help the struggling economy -- have no problem with them today, at a time when Keynesianism would consider them unnecessary.

loaded