This is funny and why Asia recovered relatively quickly in '98 and Europe has not

Krugman highlights that the NYT blog Economix is the 2nd most influential econ blog in the world - then when you click on the link you discover who is the most.... shocker, huh?!?

Krugman also explains how Asia recovered quicker from the Asian crisis in the late '90's because they had their own currencies while Europe is taking a lot longer to recover. This is because Europe is tied to one common currency so the poorer countries have less flexibility to make their economies more competitive.  This is also a good segue way to Krug's other recent post on how he was a Euro-skeptic from the inception in the early '90's.

Healthcare and Yellen

Krugman is having a field day bashing the Republicans over healthcare. He firmly believes it will be a raging success and hurt Republicans for years since they did not support it and are actively fighting its implementation. He is especially angry that they have the nerve to try and prevent its implementation through not funding parts of it - he wonders how this can happen since it passed Congress and was signed into law. His other main point is that of course some people's cost will go up since you have to cover and get premiums from healthy, young people - that is the only way to make full coverage of population work. He feels it is disingenuous of Republicans to criticize this if they really believe people have a right to some form of health insurance.

In the drama over the new Federal Reserve chair - Krugman is a big supporter of Janet Yellen over Lawrence Summers. Krugman explains that Yellen has been right numerous times over the past decade in terms of economic insight and forecasting. Summers on the other side has been too cautious and was a key architect in the Obama administration's stimulus package in 2009 that was too small and weak. He faults Obama for pushing Summers saying in essence he just wants a buddy in the position. Of course this is a big problem since the Fed chair should be independent.

Krugman: I am not a derper!

Krugman clarifies the difference between derp and urp.  To urp is just to make a mistake and then apologize. To derp is make a mistake again and again and then claim it is not a mistake despite all evidence to the contrary.  Krugman says that people who claim inflation will increase are derping.

Krugman thinks Bernanke is making a mistake

Bernanke has been saying that the Feb may soon tighten up the money supply since there are signs that the economy is improving.  Krugman think this may be a mistake since employment has still not recovered. Krugman believes that more inflation is needed to truly help employment (by reducing the debt load). With the Feb potentially increasing interest rates this would reduce any future inflation.

Krugman thinks Draghi is naive and there is no debt issue in the USA

Krugman highlights that Draghi (European Central Bank president) believes low inflation is not to bad. Krugman of course takes issue since Krugman argues higher inflation is needed to get out of the crisis. He also offhandedly mentions that Draghi may the be the last ECB president since maybe the Euro won't last much longer. He actually been saying for a couple years that the Euro might not last.

Krugman, by referring someone else's post, restates his point that there is no debt problem in the USA. He backs this up by pointing out that deficits are down and medium term debt projections are not "scary". He also mentions that Medicare spending as a % of GDP is projected to come down and SS is not as critical an issue as most people believe. 

Derp!

Krugman was throwing this word around based on a back and forth between a 'reformed' conservative and diehard conservative.  Need less to say - I had no idea what it meant.  I must have been asleep the past couple years.  Luckily a lot of bloggers have gave some background on it - but still it took me forever to read and understand what they were talking about.  To say ya'll time - basically it means you are so stupid to believe something even when all evidence to the contrary has been presented to you and you keep believing it no matter what.

So Krugman feels the right wing is derpy since all evidence shows their point of view is wrong (economics, climate change, etc) but they still keep believing it and never accept the facts.

Krugman worried about higher bond rates and its getting nasty over California health insurance

Krugman seems a bit worried about the rise in bond rates combined with a lower stock market and higher dollar.  He says this means the market thinks the Feb will raise interest rates too soon - before the economy has truly recovered.

A couple days ago Krugman said the latest healthcare news out of California showed that Obamacare will go better than expected.  Since then there are have been a couple articles - most pointedly in Forbes that have attacked this.  Krugman and his buddies are circling the wagons.  Today he screams at one of the analysts who is pointing out that rates for certain Californians will also go up.  First he says the analyst (Avik Roy) knows his stuff but then says he's being "completely fraudulent" and takes a "cheap, misleading shot.".  After reading both point of views - I can see Krugman's gist that it might be unfair to compare current cheap-o health insurance plans in CA with what Obamacare will provide - but still the fact of the matter is that for healthy people the price does go up.