Paul Revere is in his 20s, and is concerned about the impact of the growing national debt on his generation. Not much younger than when his namesake made his historic ride, he works in the wake of a tea party to challenge his fellow countrymen to find the courage to act now.
As a peruser of news I force myself to read every column Paul Krugman writes in The New York Times. It’s painful, but it provides me a look into how the left views various policies and political goings-on. One constant irritant is the claim by Krugman (recycled in this blog post in late February) that massive inflation is not only not happening in America but is not a risk in the near future.
I doubt that Krugman responds to most of his critics (he has too many to count) or even pays attention to what those critics say. However, I think it would be of great benefit to his readers if Krugman would respond to the following facts impacting the American economy, and why he thinks they are not factors to be considered when talking about inflationary possibilities:
- Gas prices are up $.80 since this time last year.
- Corn and other food prices are up, in some cases substantially, since last year.
- One of the men in charge of the recovery, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley, showed he is absolutely clueless when it comes to how prices impact poor and middle-income Americans. But who are you going to believe- Dudley and Krugman or your own lying grocery bill?
- Related, at the latter link, energy prices have jumped nearly 10% in a year, and food has jumped over 2%. The Federal Reserve ignores this because its preferred Consumer Price Index (CPI) excludes energy and food costs.
- Quantitative Easing, Part 2 (QE2) was begun in November 2010 in order to increase inflation, according to the Federal Reserve and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
As I noted above, Krugman has many, many critics. I am certainly not at the top of that list in either status or fame. However, given he has been proven dead wrong before (for example, James Agresti of JustFacts.com slammed him on claims regarding government spending), it would be nice if he would respond to the five critical points raised above. Otherwise Krugman will continue to prove to most readers to the right of Howard Dean that he is simply a demagogue, not an objective analyst of economic data and economic reality.
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