Krugman seems to be in vogue right now. For those that don’t know, he’s a Keynesian economist, who argues for massive stimulus spending and huge government intervention in the economy. Not surprisingly, he’s a contributor to the NY Times – no wonder newspapers are struggling to stay afloat.

Here at “Our Time To Stand”, we like to judge a book by the contents, and not the cover. So, let’s take a quick peek at some of Krugman’s statements. In 2001, he said:

Meanwhile, economic policy should encourage other spending to offset the temporary slump in business investment. Low interest rates, which promote spending on housing and other durable goods, are the main answer.

In other words, he’s urging then Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan to pump up the bubble. In case we’re are left in any doubt, here is what Krugman said in 2002:

To fight this recession the Fed needs…soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.

That leaves us in no doubt.  “Pump up the bubble, Alan, pump it up!” So, if you are wondering why we take a different (Austrian economics) slant on things here, let’s see a quote from Peter Schiff in 2005, from his book “Crash Proof”.

If the dot-com mania was a warm-up, the real act is the real estate bubble. Stock market collapses are bloody, but their damage is pretty well limited to those who bought overvalued stocks. Real estate, though, is all about leverage, and that debacle, already well under way, is going to affect virtually every American. The real estate bubble, easily the worst speculative episode in American history, has been artificially propping up the national economy. … The worst case would be a politically inspired re-inflation aimed at preventing a crash landing. That would mean winding up Helicopter Ben Bernanke’s money printer. When foreign central banks suddenly awakened to reality …

It is almost like he’s gone into the future, seen what transpires and then goes back to the past to write those words. Now, Schiff is a capable guy, but sophisticated temporal manipulation (time travel) is not his forte, so the only conclusion I can draw is that his economic theories are more accurate.

So, the next time you see Krugman in the NY Times, remember that he wanted Greenspan to do exactly what Greenspan did to create the bubble that led to the financial crash. I don’t know about you, but for me that’s enough! I’ll be honest, I am nowhere near smart enough to have done all that research on Krugman, but Mises did, and you read “Krugman’s Intellectual Waterloo” on their site.