Hey, Paul Krugman! Blaming ‘MAGA’ for Americans’ Disdain for Bidenomics Is a Terrible Take
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It’s unclear anymore whether New York Times propagandist-in-chief Paul Krugman actually believes the pro-Bidenomics psycho-babble he spits out or if he’s just trolling at this point.
Krugman tried bridging the gap between his illusion of a goldilocks Biden economy and the disgruntled, inflation-rattled consumers who aren’t as deluded as he is in his latest 1,108-word hot take, “Is Poor Economic Sentiment All About MAGA.” In Krugman’s distorted view, Americans struggling to make ends meet against the increasingly tenuous cost of living squeeze is just a mirage. “The more I look into it, the more I’m convinced that much of what looks like poor public perception about the economy is actually just Republicans angry that Donald Trump isn’t still president.” Yeah, go with that Krugman. [Emphasis added.]
Surely, it has nothing to do with the fact that the typical American household now has to spend at least an extra $11,434 per year just to maintain the same standard of living they had in January 2021, right? As The Heritage Foundation economist EJ Antoni told MRC Business mocking Krugman’s take: “Sure, people should feel good about the economy because an authoritarian in his ivory tower told them to be happy.”
In true Krugman style, the pseudo-economist doubled down on his absurd claim that 2023 was somehow “one of the best years ever” for the U.S. economy. “Last year was a very good one for the U.S. economy. Job growth was strong, unemployment remained near a 50-year low and inflation plunged,” Krugman claimed. “Plunged” is a funny way of saying prices, as of December, were over 17 percent higher than they were since Biden took office. The Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 11 that it “is now less affordable than any time in recent history to buy a home, and the math isn’t changing any time soon.” Also, five and eight million people are now missing from the labor force, which Antoni told MRC Business was “artificially reducing the unemployment rate.”
In true Krugman style, the pseudo-economist doubled down on his Krugman also conveniently neglected to mention that the U.S. government had “overstated” job growth in 2023 by a whopping 439,000 jobs. The New York Post noted that the gross overstatement meant the “job market is not as healthy as the government suggests.” Not only did Krugman NOT disclose any of these factoids, he showed he was determined to bury his head in the sand: “Indeed, weak consumer sentiment may be almost entirely about MAGA.” [Emphasis added.]
Antoni ripped Krugman for once again deceiving his readers. “If that’s the kind of scholarship emanating from a Nobel Laureate, then the award is more a marker of hubris and arrogance than achievement.” Krugman chalking up Americans’ discontent with Biden’s decrepit economy to partisan politics is typical for the guy who spent the inflation crisis trying to brainwash readers into believing the price squeezes were “transitory.”
Krugman even went as far to suggest that even though Republicans and Democrats tend to view the economy differently depending on whether one of their own occupies the White House, the left is more objective. “Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say that the economy is good when their party holds the White House and bad when it doesn’t.” Yes, Krugman actually wrote that. This is the same leftist Krugman who haphazardly claimed the markets would “never” recover if then-candidate Donald Trump were to win the 2016 election and doom-mongered about a “global recession.”
As for the overwhelming number of independents who have soured on the Biden economy, Krugman hubristically just told readers to forget about that statistic. “What about independents? Never mind. True independents, voters without partisan leaning, barely exist; data for independents is basically an average of voters who think like Democrats and voters who think like Republicans.” Of course he would just try to discount voters not affiliated with any party, because a Bankrate survey found in November 2023 that 59 percent of independent voters have expressed that their economic situation “has deteriorated since 2020,” according to Fox Business. The numbers, it seems, just didn’t suit Krugman’s narrative, so he bypassed them.
But Krugman’s nonsense didn’t stop there. He all but outright suggested that survey respondents who were denigrating the Biden economy to pollsters were lying about their real economic plight. “As I and many others have pointed out, consumers’ behavior doesn’t match the grim answers they give pollsters: Actual consumer spending remains strong.” Antoni blistered this take by Krugman, asserting, “For Krugman to assert that the price level has nothing to do with people’s views on the economy, especially when the price level is rising faster than earnings, is absurd.”
Naturally, Krugman also didn’t bother mentioning anything about Americans’ credit card debt situation. A recent Bankrate analysis found that 49 percent of credit card holders have been carrying debt month-to-month, a drastic increase from the 39 percent figure in 2021. And Americans’ total credit card debt is at a record $1.08 trillion. In other words, consumer spending amidst high prices makes more sense in light of this context, but Krugman chose to bury it.
Krugman also tried to make the story of Americans’ bout with inflation an issue of supply shocks, which Antoni nuked:
If the 40-year-high inflation under Biden were truly due exclusively to things like supply chain disruptions, as Krugman is alleging, then the removal of those problems should have not only reduced inflation rates, but reduced prices as well. But prices have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Instead, they remain almost 18 percent higher than when Biden took office. Krugman continues to display his elitism by telling the common man to not believe your lying eyes or your empty wallets.
As Antoni noted, “The economic recovery under Biden has been extremely unequal across income strata, with wealth and income gains going disproportionately to those who were already better off. For the vast majority of Americans, their real incomes are lower today than two, three or four years ago. They are going into debt at an alarming rate. Housing is unaffordable, and the American dream of homeownership is dead.”
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