Category Archives: Europe

King Krugman Cross With German 'Know-Nothing'

Democrats, Europe, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Political Economy, Republicans

Or as I dubbed the scolded Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück: “The German who’s really an Austrian … economist.”

“Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman has blasted Germany’s Peer Steinbrück for his resistance to economic stimulus spending. Now the ‘boneheaded,’ ‘know-nothing’ finance minister has sent Krugman an invitation to come to Berlin to discuss their differences.”

“Krugman has repeatedly emphasized his belief that deficit spending is among the few bulwarks against a reprise of the Great Depression and he hasn’t shied from pillorying those with a cooler attitude towards stimulus.”

Steinbrück has been among his favorite targets. Krugman has blasted Steinbrück, who took office hoping to balance the German budget and together with Chancellor Angela Merkel has withheld his support for further European or national stimulus packages, for his “know-nothing diatribes” and ” boneheadedness.” Krugman’s most painful insult of all may have been his suggestion that the criticisms of “crass Keynesianism” offered by Steinbrück, a member of Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party, most closely resemble the thinking of America’s Republican Party.

Why the invite? Where’s Steinbrück’s Tutonic spirit? And what arrogance Krugman evinces. Even if his “crass Keynesianism” was correct, which it isn’t (neither is Keynesiansim merely “crass”; it’s criminal)–what about respecting the sovereignty of strangers? In their misguided arrogance, Dems and Republicans are of a piece.

What’s more, neither foolish faction has grasped that America is no longer a super power, able to lord it over the rest.

A Republican Warns … Two Years Late

America, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Republicans, Socialism

Since the crowning of Obama, Republicans have begun to cultivate a convenient awareness of the weight of the federal debt on the American economy.

Penned in February of 2007, my “Inflation 101 For Women Pundits And Other Tyrants” put the burden Dubya’s “national debt of $9 trillion” had placed on “America’s $12.98-trillion economy” in perspective:

As the American national debt stands, we would not be admitted into the company of socialists: The European Union. The EU expects member nations to hold debt below 60 percent of GDP.

Two years later, in March 26, 2009, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) claims the same, and makes headlines in The Hill.

A little late, don’t you think?! (Where do you go for the truth years ahead?)

Republicans: Repent!

Barack Obama, Economy, Europe, Socialism

The excerpt is from my new WorldNetDaily.com column, “Republicans: Repent!”:

“Like all such ‘good’ things, the latest rescue plan originated with a Republican. Only a week or two back, minority whip Sen. Mitch McConnell proposed a similar scheme whereby the government would lower home-loan interest rates and guarantee the loans. …

Only a few months back, Republicans now baying about Obama’s spending voted for Bush’s $750 billion bank bail-out, and, earlier last year, for his ‘Stim.’ As did they go along with the trillions Bush poured into wars and other welfare. …

If party Republicans wish to convince conservatives of the seriousness of their recently discovered fiscal conservatism, they must stop pretending socialism began with Obama; they must quit making hyperbolic, false statements about Obama having killed capitalism. Acknowledge they must that America has been flouting the free market for ages; that Americans labor under a highly regulated economic system, which combines elements of socialism, fascism, and capitalism.

The GOP must first avow this state of affairs, then disavow it and vow to correct it. …

Said Saint Augustine: ‘The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.’ The Republican Party has done the devil’s work. To embark on the good, it must come clean about the bad.”

The complete column is “Republicans: Repent!“

U.S. To The World: ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’

Addiction, Barack Obama, Bush, Economy, Europe, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

“World worries how US will pay for stimulus,” blared a headline in The International Herald Tribune.

But, like the lyrics to that 1988 drone, the US’s message to the world is: “Don’t Worry Be Happy.”

Obama’s cool with spending more than even “W” the wastrel managed to spend. What does it say about galloping central planning in the US, when even statist France, where 2.5 million protesters took to the streets, is refusing to go beyond its Keynesian comfort zone:

“Prime Minister François Fillon on Monday rejected demands that the French government seek to stimulate consumer spending … to lift France out of its economic slump”:

‘It would be irresponsible to chose [sic] another policy, which would increase our country’s indebtedness …,’ Fillon said in a speech in Lyon.”

To cure the addict, the world must stop enabling the American government: dethrone the dollar as the world’s reserve currency—a status that comes with a license to print money promiscuously. Successive American governments have abused this status and debased their country’s coin.

The American people refused to stop the madmen in change (they could have, by electing Ron Paul, the only sane representative running). Maybe the world must stop enabling the madmen and the addicted American electorate.