Krugman: If You are Not Awed by the Latest Employment Figures, Then You are "Deranged"

When Paul Krugman was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics four years ago, Donald Luskin wrote tongue-in-cheek that the committee from the Swedish central bank had given the honor to what essentially was a "dead economist."  Luskin's point was that Krugman a decade before had traded in his economist's hat for the headgear of a political operative, and today's column is a case-in-point.

Last week the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the nation's unemployment rate had fallen to 7.8 percent, and the same Paul Krugman who would excoriate the George W. Bush administration (which, truthfully, deserved to be excoriated) when unemployment was under six percent, now is undeniably giddy over the data:

On the employer side, the current numbers say that over the past year the economy added 150,000 jobs a month, and revisions will probably push that number up significantly. That’s well above the 90,000 or so added jobs per month that we need to keep up with population.

He goes on to claim that had Goldstein, er, the "scorched-earth Republicans," not sabotaged the whole recovery, we might be near-swimming in prosperity. Krugman declares:

...that’s the truth that the right can’t handle. The furor over Friday’s report revealed a political movement that is rooting for American failure, so obsessed with taking down Mr. Obama that good news for the nation’s long-suffering workers drives its members into a blind rage. It also revealed a movement that lives in an intellectual bubble, dealing with uncomfortable reality — whether that reality involves polls or economic data — not just by denying the facts, but by spinning wild conspiracy theories.

It is, quite simply, frightening to think that a movement this deranged wields so much political power.

So, there you have it. If you are not convinced that Operation Twist, QE Forever, massive subsidies to windmills and corn-based ethanol, inflation, and make-work schemes have not put us on the road to prosperity, then you not only are "deranged," but you are in league with Goldstein.

Let me put it another way: Does anyone think that if a Republican (Goldstein) were in office and unemployment was over 8 percent all during the person's time in office and the rate fell to 7.8 percent a month before the election, that Krugman would be claiming that the True Recovery had arrived? No, I didn't think so.