Paul Krugman:Charlatans and Cranks

[cal04]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/charlatans-and-cranks/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

Politico writes that

In this Republican primary season, no economic or monetary policy is too unorthodox for an electorate hungry for change.

There’s not much new in the story, but it does remind us that Tim Pawlenty — who is supposed to be a non-crazy– has declared his opposition to fiat currencies — i.e., demanded a return to the gold standard (although he may not know that that’s what it means).

What Politico doesn’t include, but should, is the lemming-like rush to endorse the Ryan plan, which, although Very Serious, is also complete crank economics, with its insistence — in the teeth of all the evidence — that privatizing Medicare can somehow provide adequate health care at much lower cost. And then there’s the recent rise of default denialism — hey, let’s signal to everyone that we’re a banana republic, what harm can it do?

In the first edition (but only the first edition) of his textbook, Greg Mankiw famously derided Reagan’s supply-side advisers as charlatans and cranks. It’s pretty clear that when Mankiw wrote that he imagined that this was only a phase, that the GOP would return to more sensible policies. In fact, however, the party is sinking ever further into deep voodoo.

[Demeter]

1. And the Nation and the World Is Sinking With Them

[n2doc]

2. We're all sinking together n/t