Sen. Ben Nelson: Who the hell is Paul Krugman, and what does he know about economics?

[mpc91]

Yes, Paul Krugman won a Nobel Prize for economics. Not really surprising that a Keynesian with a column would win a Nobel Prize. By the way, he suggested the housing bubble in 2002. Thought it was a good idea. He thought the stimulus was a good idea, did it work? But he's politically agreeable, and never called on the carpet for his continuous errors.

His mentor suggested that the Soviets would overtake the US economically. Maybe that will happen soon. He won a Nobel Prize too.

[bobshenix]

Paul Krugman was a former top advisor to Enron... he's like wicked smart.

[jjenson2006]

@bobshenix

Wicked stupid is more like it!

blog. mises. org/10153/krugman-did-cause-th­e-housing-bubble/

[campelofep]

lol

Go to mises.org and educate yourself

[SM1135ster]

This disgrafeful old political whore has disabled his facebook page and almost every other video- so glad i get to say Take Out The Trash Day Nov. 2, 2010 bye bye you crooked old vulture

[TheKevinWalker]

The title IS disagreeable, but Nelson totally dodges the question at hand, and gives no apparent regard to the opinion of a respected and awarded Economist.

[jjenson2006]

@TheKevinWalker Respected and rewarded by clueless assholes!

[TheKevinWalker]

@jjenson2006 Well I was thinking specifically of the Nobel Prize people, which was once awarded to none other than lifelong Keynes rival Friedrich von Hayek for "[his] penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena.", which, as I read it, means that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for "The Road to Serfdom", so I wouldn't dismiss them outright, if I held what I presume to be your opinions on economics.

[TheKevinWalker]

I also would not dismiss the awarders of the John Bates Clark award, rewarded to economists under 40 who made significant contributions to the Science: also, I find this noteworthy, all of Krugman's awards (including the Nobel) have been based on his contribution to trade theory, and he remains a staunch free-trade supporter, which is actually a very conservative cause. I, a Social Democrat, also support it, but it's still a mostly conservative or Libertarian opinion to hold.

[TheKevinWalker]

@jjenson2006 So no, I don't think eitehr of us have the position to simply regard teh awarders of the Nobel Prize or the John Bates Clark medal as "clueless assholes", as you put it.

[jjenson2006]

@TheKevinWalker I have no opinions of the others you mention. As far as the Nobel prize, it lost it's significance when it was given to Obama and Krugman.

Krugman is NOT a free trade supporter. Free trade means government doesn't interfere with commerce. Krugman believes in government intervention, which goes 180 degrees against free trade!

Krugman WANTED a housing bubble and then AFTER it's created, he points the blame elsewhere. Yes, the Fed did lower the rates, but KRUGMAN supported it!

[mizzoulibertarian]

there is at least 35 billion barrels of oil in the Dakotas and maybe a lot more

[darkmiles22]

Nebraska actually has 5 electoral votes, 2 more than Alaska. But your point still stands, people from rural states have way too much power.

One vote in Nebraska has 2 times the weight in electoral math that a vote in California does. One in Alaska has 3 times.

In Senate terms one vote in Nebraska has 22 times the weight of a vote in California. One in Alaska has 57 times the weight of one in California in terms of Senate power. 57 TIMES!!!

No wonder the Senate is gridlocked.

[mizzoulibertarian]

but we get a lot of oil from Alaska. we get a lot of food from Nebraska. What does Manhattan give us? derivatives? and Southern California is almost a failed state

[ICanFusillade]

The Senator also screwed the bill because he's from Nebraska... A state with two electoral votes and a population the size of Alaska.

[darkmiles22]

pretty sure every state has at least three electoral votes...

[DraganGlas]

Greetings,

The title of this video is misleading...

Senator Nelson says: " I don't know where he's from..." before mentioning that in Nebraska, the sum discussed is relatively huge.

Senator Nelson did not say nor imply that he didn't know who Professor Krugman is - watch closely and you see him nodding when the interviewer mentions his name.

He simply implies that the sum mentioned may seem small to Krugman, wherever he's from, but not to people in Nebraska.

Kindest regards,

James

[TheShamanSZ]

By comparison, who is Senator Ben Nelson?

[ICanFusillade]

Krugman is a great economist. You just think he's not an economist because you're not an economist.

[Entropy137]

Krugman is as good at making economic predictions as the pope is in curing the blind. Ask any market watcher.

[ICanFusillade]

economists are generally really bad at making predictions. They don't make predictions, they solve problems : ).

[Entropy137]

The are related. He claims that we need a huge stimulus package, but he doesn't really know what the long term effects of that will bring. Or maybe he does know and doesn't care.

[ICanFusillade]

He knows and doesn't care because it doesn't matter. : )

Source: Chicago School of Economics

[Entropy137]

Whatever, Krugman's an idiot.

Source: Austrian School

[ICanFusillade]

You're the one that's talking...

[Entropy137]

Read he article on Slate about the austrian theory of the business cycle. Then read the actual definition of the theory. He refuted it only by misstating it.

[ICanFusillade]

Is the Austrian theory a fact, or is it just merely a vantage point of economic theory?

[Entropy137]

It is a theory and in my opinion a good one, but that's not the point. Krugman's attempt at refuting the theory consisted on misstating it. Classic strawman. Whether he misstated it by accident or on purpose is also irrelevant because neither case lends him respect. Also, read what he said about the possibility of Iran selling oil in dollars. It seems to me he doesn't know of or acknowledge the petrodollar theory.

[caFexpo00]

You're an idiot. Source: Liberal

[Entropy137]

Your comment made me really really sad. Punk ass nigger bitch faggot.

[pspguy28]

Krugman has never seemed like much of an economist to me- just an apologist for liberal political thought. His book "The Conscience of a Liberal" just played the race card and had nothing to do with economics at all. I guess they'll give anyone a Nobel Prize these days lol

[iwinallarguments29]

actually he won the nobel prize for incorporating comparative advantage into the global networking economic model. this has revolutionized economics by providing a model that all economic institutions can use to maximize their input and minimize their price.

[TheShamanSZ]

He seems to be one of the household names in the fields of macroeconomy and international economy.

I also think his 2003 book had something to do with it... When you explain why a situation leads to a crisis, and in 5 years you get a major crisis, people tend to notice.

[prince2873]

Your right! They just passed another one out today.

[ipbalkenende]

We're not going to get a progressive into Nebraska anytime soon. Nelson votes with us 60% of the time which is better than any republican would.

But Toomey probably has a better chance in Penn (ie no chance) than a liberal has in Nebraska. Progressives must keep pressure on centrist dems on places where it makes sense. Lieberman and Specter make a lot of sense.

[pongman]

The answer to the economy is to lower food prices and gas prices. It doesn't cost a trillion dollars to plant more seeds or to open up the oil reserves. With the lower food prices people can then buy stuff and save the economy.

[jjrglobal]

Actually the gov could simply stop giving farm subsidiesand that would increase food supply and save us money. They could also allow more drilling on Fed land and bring in royalty revenue. These trillions of dollars being spent are not only unnecessary they are preventing a recovery.

[eurogoldexchange]

Wow, what a misleading video. It was the REPUBLICANS that wanted to replace these school projects with tax cuts. So why asj a democrate this question? US media is fucked up.

[mscrone]

I don't appeal to authority, but I quote Krugman because I've read him and he backs up his points while the failed policies since Reagan--trickle down economics--are all around us. Nor is Krugman the only economist criticizing those against job creation. Stop getting hung up on labels and look at actual policy and its effects.

[dudeman5790]

do you not understand why the bush economics didn't perform as well as they would have?

[Eagles1978]

Not once does he say "Who the hell is Paul Krugman, and what does he know about economics"

Why post this?

[phillip42]

BSNBC, Liberal safe haven for Television.

[chick5581]

i didnt see that comming. and im gonna have to agree with some of the other comments made.. i didnt see it coming but it wasnt like a bad surprise more of a random but good thing you know what i mean.

[mistaspot1]

Paul Krugman is an empty suit who the MSM uses an an authoritative voice in economics. He didn't deserve that Nobel Prize. I think everybody was more than a little bit shocked when he got it.

Appeal to authority much???

[GreenTeaGarlic]

lol people like you think that no one deserved the nobel prize. einstein didn't deserve it either, right? because he didn't come up with every single component of his theory by scratch? LOL

[jpbalkenende]

I don't really care for wether you think Krugman deserves the Nobel prize or not and suspect your motivation to be more political in any case than however political the nobel commitee may be accues of being. I do however value the analysis of a guy who predicted the dotcom bust, the housing bust and even one the first voices to ring the alarm bell over the Iraq propaganda.

[dudeman5790]

wow, he sounds conveniently political as well.

[jpbalkenende]

Liberals didn't start boycotting the Nobel prize because Friedman had won it. In fact the failures that kooked up the derivatives of rational expectations also got showered with Nobels while their theories have failed time and time again and have no empirical credibility.

[thomaserossi]

He deserves a Nobel Prize in Economics like Gore and Arafat deserve Nobel Prizes in Peace.

I've lost all confidence in the Nobel Prize.

[opinion56]

dude after al gore won a nobel price, the prize became absolutely irrelevant and worthless.

[dudeman5790]

I'm going to create a global crisis or better yet panic/hysteria that will conveniently earn me 99 million dollars, an oscar, a political playing card over my opponent and that only democrats can solve in order to win my peace prize.

the biggest cause of global warming- al gores HOT AIR!!

[hansson2000]

compareing nobel peace prize with economic nobel prize winner, and then claiming it lost its relivance its totally absurd and dumber then most neolibertarians economics in here. economic nobelprize is elected in sweden by a swedish nobel economic jury while peace price is handed out by norweigian judges and hang on in norway ... get ur facts straight and keep it relivant to quto bill o "shut up"

[accityfolk]

Paul Krugman is a raging moron. It's true that he doesn't know anything about economics.

[akitten1313]

In my economics class we have text books by Paul Krugman he's a economic genius.

[semiliteratedgod]

this guy clearly has problems with education

try ignorance, it's free...

[4teepee]

The Congressional Budget Office calculates demand will be short $2.9 trillion over the next three years. So $800 billion is not enough. Not enough means more unemployment and lost production. President Obama is likely going to have to come back to Congress in the future for more money.

[countess1900]

Career do nothing politicians, your days are numbered.

[4teepee]

Paul Krugmans point is that the overall bill is too small to make up for the falloff in demand. He is not simply talking about education spending. President Obama is probably going to have to come back later and ask for more money.

We sure wind up with some goofy guys in Congress.

[66605]

Paul Krugman is a Keynesian troll. If he doesn't know that his economic philosophy is a joke then he is a fool. Obama doesn't understand economics and he is listening to the same people who gave us the economic mess we have now.

[rakrobn]

No 66605, the real bullshit is the trickle-down bullshit that conservatives keep spitting out saying that it benefits those below them, and that it results in even more revenue when the facts have shown otherwise. Keynesian economics is actually a VALID THEORY.

[Kapan60]

So taking Keynesian economics into account I can go and photocopy my dollar bills and put them into circulation.  It's not counterfiting, honest!

Oh, I forgot. I'm not the Federal Reserve.

[qwertydj2003]

hahaha, good point!!

[sillynanny44]

haha ''photocopy a one dollar bill.'' because of inflation the photocopying will cost you more than the newly created dollar bill... ron paul or peter schiff(both predicted our crisis and actually knows the real cause) would win if they ever debate paul krugman.

[parisrai]

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- "The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the governments commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nations home mortgages." You losers in Washington are fighting over 300 million for condoms, I would rather had my house paid for.  Cut the Congressional car pool, save $3.4 billion and stop these losers from riding around in limos on our dime all day. I don't want your Crapulus bill.

[paulocbn]

what???? this package has a clause that holds 300 million in condoms???

[ikeike2]

Buy a new Rug!

[Kapan60]

Buy a new AMERICAN rug!

[shalcall]

Nobel prize winning economists are saying the bill is too small and tax cuts won't help enough.  But for some reason we're listening to far right republicans and centrist democrats instead of experts?

[Kapan60]

I fail to see how any of these bailouts are going to work anyway. You can't spend your way out of debt or hyperinflate the US currency by overprinting money. We're screwed and bailouts like this only serve a small miniority of Americans and corporations.

If your a lower or middle class American taxpayer not only are you screwed, you get to pay for it.

[countess1900]

Kapan60, your looking at this from a house whole budget perspective. Capital and resource investing, (if done wisely) generates more capital and resources. My problem is with giving it to the greedy 1%'ers who don't invest in American capital and labor.

[Kapan60]

You can't spend your way out of debt. We owed $15 trillion before Bush left office and we continue to spend trillions on bailouts that do nothing. China and England stated they will no longer lend us money and we continue to devalue the US currency by printing more of it out of thin air.

This has been predicted to happen by economists ever since we left the gold standard. You can invest all you want, but the paper currency is almost worthless and soon might be.