You might remember when New York Times economic columnist Paul Krugman predicted after Donald Trump was elected president that the U.S. markets might never recover. The markets went on to set records.
Four years later Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, and shortly thereafter Krugman made another bold prediction:
That included a prediction about a 2022 midterm possibility:
If I’m right, however, the peculiar nature of the coronavirus slump may give Democrats another big political opportunity. There’s a pretty good chance that they’ll be able to run in the 2022 midterms as the party that brought the nation and the economy back from the depths of Covid despond. And they should seize that opportunity, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of the nation and the world.
That certainly doesn’t appear to be what’s going to unfold in November, but in any case, Krugman is now defending his “Biden boom” prediction:
Since I get lots of mockery for having talked about a "Biden boom", I thought I'd share a chart 1/ pic.twitter.com/zA9NqM4jzd
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) August 1, 2022
We’ll get back to that one in a second, but why is the economy in the shape it is? The “Biden boom” boomed too much:
The problem may be that the Biden economy boomed *too much*, feeding inflation, and that it now needs to cool off, which may involve a recession (but hasn't yet) 2/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) August 1, 2022
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Krugman also recently said we should ignore the two-quarter rule for defining a recession, a take that will likely change when a Republican is back in the White House.
And yes, I know that there are all kinds of issues about different starting points, the role of federal policy, etc. But the basic fact is that so far the Biden economy has added 9 million jobs. So it has been a jobs boom, whatever else you may say 3/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) August 1, 2022
The White House will applaud this take, but their approach has always been the same: To try and make people believe that jobs restored = jobs “created.”
Added…back. And we're still not at pre-covid payrolls.
— William Johnson (@William48137673) August 1, 2022
Those are not comparable periods. Business cycle-wise and given the uniqueness of the covid recession.
— Scotch on the rocks (@CharlesDelorm19) August 1, 2022
Krugman’s got to know that… right? RIGHT!?
Case in point…
A truly impressive level of dishonesty and/or self-delusionhttps://t.co/UmUXvxyQuH
— Mike Singleton, CFA (@InvictusMacro) August 1, 2022
A nobel prize winning spin doctor 👌🏽 https://t.co/QfDzeA2vcW
— No We Khan't (@thisismanzar) August 1, 2022
Since when in any time in history has a booming economy fed inflation therefore causing a recession?
This is propaganda wrapped in gaslighting and this 🤡 has 4.6 million followers. His tweet should be slapped with a misleading label. https://t.co/8iUZwZxc9u
— Josh (@Slader_83) August 1, 2022
“The economy boomed too much under Biden” is quite the assessment.
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