Economists who are ideologically aligned with the Biden Administration have been pulling out all the stops as of late to try and convince the American people that, no matter what they're seeing and experiencing themselves, everything's going GREAT with the economy. Foremost amongst these peddlers of economic Happy Papers has been 2008 Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who will go to any length and massage any number to tell you that no, things are GREAT actually!
An inflation update: in the past I've focused on a measure that excludes lagging shelter and used cars as well as food and energy. Just to note that it adds to the evidence that inflation has been largely defeated pic.twitter.com/nDw76i1jD5
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 15, 2023
This is Krugman tripling down ... or quadrupling down ... it's hard to keep track of how many times he's tried to trot out this sort of argument but it's been a lot. Just last Saturday, Twitchy's own Grateful Calvin wrote about another attempt like this (Krugman to America: If you were super smart like me, you’d LOVE this economy – Twitchy).
Mr. Krugman enjoys trying to sell the economy as being great and inflation as being well in hand, which you might believe so long as you don't own a car or eat food.
Cool, I'll just stop eating food to save money
— Duck (@balling_it) September 15, 2023
So you are excluding shelter, cars, food, and energy…which represents something like 55% of the total basket
— Wagie Capital (@WagieCapital) September 15, 2023
Why in the world would you use a measure that excludes the MAJORITY of consumption?
Peak academic moment
For the average person what they care about is food, energy, shelter and cars (used or new). Not sure why one would look at CPI excluding all the above. Ask the person on the street how those inputs have done and I expect you will get some harsh responses. In their minds…
— Macro84 (@macro84) September 15, 2023
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You know if Paul Krugman thinks inflation is whipped, we are in for a world of hurt.
— Winston Niles Rumfoord (@RumfoordNiles) September 15, 2023
It's science!
This is the sort of very specific chart that means something to very specialized areas of research and theory for academics but has absolutely no bearing on what the average American voter and consumer is experiencing on a day-to-day basis. You'd think that Krugman would understand the difference but after a lifetime ensconced in academia or safely walled away writing his pieces for the New York Times, one must make allowances for Krugman having no idea about how economics works for people who actually work for a living and disregard his opinion accordingly.
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