ECONOMIC CHECKMATE- stammering, incoherent mess:
I made a transcript of Paul Krugman's remarks on the economy, on CNBC News with Brian Williams last Wednesday night. Personal implosion just doesn't get any better than this stammering, incoherent mess:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: "And Paul, I need not tell you, conservatives, a lot of fans of this administration, for whom your -- your column has become the place they love to hate, are sitting around looking at the uh, the -- the Beige Book and the new numbers out, saying 'well what is Krugman going to say about this.' What do you say about all the evidence?
PAUL KRUGMAN: "Um, it's definitely an upturn, I mean, uh, you can't, uh, you know I, what do you say? It looks good. Um, it doesn't look great yet. That we -- we need -- we need a lot more before we are willing to say, 'Gee, it's really great stuff.' But, uh, it's a lot better than I expected. I think -- it's better really than anyone expected. Uh, we still don't see employment gains, uh, that would -- that would, really make a big dent in the unemp -- in the unemployment rate, and you know we have -- we have a lot of lost ground to make up. But it's definitely an upturn. Um, you know, what I would say for, as someone who criticizes that -- look, um this, it really wasn't about the short-term business cycle. It's -- it's the long-term budget deficit. Uh, even if Bush gets, uh, an equivalent of Reagan's morning in America, which was six quarters of growth at about the rates that we had in the third quarter of this year, uh, that -- that wasn't good enough. It turned out that there was a lot of problems with -- with build-up of debt. But look, it's -- it's -- it's better, and -- I've got relatives looking for jobs, and -- and, you know, this is good. Better. Much better than what we feared might happen."
Donald Ruskin |
