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Feb 13, 2014

Krugman and his Nobel, Economists who have been wrong, and North Carolina jobs

Krugman writes at length on whether he or other laureates should be given more visibility since they won prestigious prizes. His point is yes maybe they should be given a forum but if they continue to get things wrong then that should be the end of them in the public arena.

It is always fun when Krugman goes back a couple years to look at what people said and then show how now they been proved wrong and he’s been right. In this post Krugman writes how in 2010 Ken Rogoff attacks those who wanted more fiscal stimulus and said that those people who advocated against austerity would be wrong about more recessions. Krugman then breaks out with a chart showing more recessions in Europe since 2010.   

Another favorite topic is when Krugman and the WSJ go mano-a-mano over the same issue. Recently it was over lower unemployment in North Carolina. It seems NC allowed many people’s UI benefits to end. The WSJ pointed out that this eventually lowered the NC UE rate, Krugman doesn't dispute but says the rate went lower since more people just stopped looking for work and thus are no longer counted in the UE rate.