Ken Rogoff opens up his wallet and his credit line while Paul Krugman increases military spending and plans for alien space invasions to provide some fiscal stimulus and end the economic uncertainty.
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/18097/all-we-need-is-twilight-zone-economics/
All We Need Is Twilight Zone/Outer Limits Economics
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Justin Raimondo of antiwar.com worked up a head of steam about this, then dared participate in the comment section bunfight: http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2011/08/14/can-space-aliens-save-us/
A real war against space aliens would evidently be a 7 hour war
Sounds like something straight from the Onion.
And indeed, there’s nothing like an alien space invasion to end the economic uncertainty!
Hmmm, very curious, both Ken and Ben got their PhD’s from MIT.
I think Gary North wins another round from Walter Block.
MIT stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While a fine school for science and technology (hence the name), anyone who has a degree from there not in a technological field should not be listened to nor employed. I have received resumes from people with MIT degrees in non-technological fields. They go straight into the trash.
They really ought to have their accreditation pulled for non-technological majors.
Has this guy literally never heard of the Broken-Window fallacy?
I am sure he has, but remember, being influenced by Keynes, he believes the market can get stuck at an equilibrium below full employment. He doesn’t believe those unemployed resources will ever get used unless something intervenes, like government inflation and spending.
Which brings me to wonder, why not wish for aliens with a replicator that could create a veritable “Land of Cockaigne” here on earth? That makes more sense.
That whole thing was an episode from outer limits. My goodness, digging ditches help the economy and fake alien invasions will make the world a better place. People listen to this nonsense?
Peter Schiff responds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyW-o-Pr92M
And see more here: http://mises.org/Community/forums/p/25929/434893.aspx#434893 .
This was actually the plot point of the Watchman comic book. The hero (now villian) Ozymandias was creating a situation in which it looked like the world was threatened by an alien invasion such that it would get the West and East to unite against it.
I guess when they made the movie, they thought movie audience wouldn’t buy this idea, so they changed the threat to being Dr. Manhattan instead of aliens.
I just saw the CNN clip.
HO-LEE-S**T! Krugman really needs psychological help.
Seriously?!? They couldn’t find anyone better to interview?
Krugie’s losing it (even more). Space aliens? Although to his credit, the noted intellectual Ronald Reagan did propose a similar solution to end the Cold War.
Krugman looks and sounds kind of dumb, but I suppose that it’s part of the act. He has a silly, fake-innocent expression on his face, combined with completely ridiculous arguments. Acting like you’re pronouncements are simple, commonsense facts doesn’t make them so … but it’s good enough to convince many people.
If Crusoe and Friday would be wasting their time and harming their standard of living by building elaborate defenses against a non-existent invasion by foreigners instead of building more comfortable homes and repairing their fishing equipment, then how could America or the world possibly benefit from building defenses against E.T.s ? Likewise, if Crusoe and Friday were actually harming themselves by trying to murder each other and destroy each others homes and fishing equipment then why do people like Krugman think that warfare is a good thing for anyone else? Even if rebuilding their homes and fishing equipment did raise the islands notional GDP as measured in banana leaves.
This is a man whose brain went out to lunch about three decades ago and has not come back to the office ever since. Not a bad actor though.
But we already have a fake invasion going on … by extremists who hate us for our freedom. What a boon for the economy it’s been.
Great point.
Aliens?
Wash Paul Krugman’s mouth out with soap!
“Undocumented extraterrestrials”.
What an idiotic thing to say. What a terrible hypothetical, he should be ashamed to call himself an economist.
There actually was an alien invasion. They gave us Paul Krugman. The man needs to go back to the mother ship. Please!
Your paper is generally helpful to me. You have different opinions in the exact same things. The paper you have issued is what I’m thinking about, so I hope that you can issue more great papers similar to this. I will continue to focus done to you.
NASA appears to be implementing the Krugman plan. Took less than two day for them to climb aboard.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/18/aliens-destroy-humanity-protect-civilisations
NASA is now on board with the Krugman plan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/18/aliens-destroy-humanity-protect-civilisations
Wow, and they have the gall to call themselves “scientists”?
Sorry for the double post. Internet lag. Tried to correct day, days. Also tried to request a deletion of one of them.
How many companies in the past have strategically used Paul Krugman as a tax write off?
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