Ag Forum

[Red Steele]

By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: August 02, 2002
"The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn't a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble."

Thanks, Prof. Krugman. How did that advice work out?

Tell me, what is worse...to be a numbskull, or to be an acolyte of a numbskull?