The Dangerous Cult of Dumb Economists

From “When Prophecy Fails,” Paul Krugman, NYT:

“Back in the 1950s three social psychologists joined a cult that was predicting the imminent end of the world. Their purpose was to observe the cultists’ response when the world did not, in fact, end on schedule. What they discovered, and described in their classic book, ‘When Prophecy Fails,’ is that the irrefutable failure of a prophecy does not cause true believers — people who have committed themselves to a belief both emotionally and by their life choices — to reconsider. On the contrary, they become even more fervent, and proselytize even harder.

“This insight seems highly relevant as 2012 draws to a close. After all, a lot of people came to believe that we were on the brink of catastrophe — and these views were given extraordinary reach by the mass media. As it turned out, of course, the predicted catastrophe failed to materialize. But we can be sure that the cultists won’t admit to having been wrong. No, the people who told us that a fiscal crisis was imminent will just keep at it, more convinced than ever.

“Oh, wait a second — did you think I was talking about the Mayan calendar thing?

“Seriously, at every stage of our ongoing economic crisis — and in particular, every time anyone has suggested actually trying to do something about mass unemployment — a chorus of voices has warned that unless we bring down budget deficits now now now, financial markets will turn on America, driving interest rates sky-high. And these prophecies of doom have had a powerful effect on our economic discourse.

“Regular readers know that I and other economists argued from the beginning that these dire warnings of fiscal catastrophe were all wrong, that budget deficits won’t cause soaring interest rates as long as the economy is depressed — and that the biggest risk to the economy is that we might try to slash the deficit too soon.  And surely that point of view has been strongly validated by events.

“The key thing we need to understand, however, is that the prophets of fiscal disaster, no matter how respectable they may seem, are at this point effectively members of a doomsday cult.  They are emotionally and professionally committed to the belief that fiscal crisis lurks just around the corner, and they will hold to their belief no matter how many corners we turn without encountering that crisis.

“So we cannot and will not persuade these people to reconsider their views in the light of the evidence.  All we can do is stop paying attention.  It’s going to be difficult, because many members of the deficit cult seem highly respectable.  But they’ve been hugely, absurdly wrong for years on end, and it’s time to stop taking them seriously.”  Emphasis added.

Krugman Scolds the Deficit Scolds

From “Fighting Fiscal Phantoms,” Paul Krugman, NYT:

“But we’re not  Greece, and it’s almost impossible to see how this [a run on Treasuries, a spike in interest rates and a return to recession] could actually happen to a country in our situation.

“For we have our own currency — and almost all of our debt, both private and public, is denominated in dollars.  So our government, unlike the Greek government, literally can’t run out of money.  After all, it can print the stuff.

“But if the U. S. government prints money to pay its bills, won’t that lead to inflation?  No, not if the economy is still depressed.

“Still, haven’t crises like the one envisioned by deficit scolds happened in the past?  Actually, no.  As far as I can tell, every example supposedly illustrating the dangers of debt involves either a country that, like Greece today, lacked its own currency, or a country that, like Asian economies in the 1990s, had large debts in foreign currencies.

“For years, deficit scolds have held Washington in thrall with warnings of an imminent debt crisis, even though investors, who continue to buy U. S. bonds, clearly believe that such a crisis won’t happen; economic analysis says that such a crisis can’t happen; and the historical record shows no examples bearing any resemblance to our current situation in which such a crisis actually did happen.”

So Where Are the High Interest Rates?

From “Money For Nothing,” Paul Krugman, NYT:

“For years, allegedly serious people have been issuing dire warnings about the consequences of large budget deficits — deficits that are overwhelmingly the result of our ongoing economic crisis.

“But a funny thing happened on the way to the predicted fiscal crisis:  instead of soaring, U. S. borrowing costs have fallen to their lowest level in the nation’s history.  And it’s not just America.  At this point, every advanced country that borrows in its own currency is able to borrow very cheaply.

“The failure of deficits to produce the predicted rise in  interest rates is telling us something important about the nature of our economic troubles (and the wisdom, or lack thereof, of the self-appointed guardians of our fiscal virtue).
“Oh, and pay no attention to the warnings any day now we’ll turn into Greece, Greece I tell you.  Countries like Greece, and for that matter Spain, are suffering from their ill-advised decision to give up their own currencies for the euro, which has left them vulnerable in a way that America just isn’t.

“So what is going on?  The main answer is that this is what happens when you have a ‘deleveraging shock,’ in which everyone is trying to pay down debt at the same time.

“But it’s simply crazy to be laying off schoolteachers and canceling infrastructure projects at a time when investors are offering zero- or negative-interest financing.

“You don’t even have to make a Keynesian argument about jobs to see that.  All you have to do is note that when money is cheap, that’s a good time to invest.

“That said, you should be a Keynesian, too.  The experience of the past few years — above all, the spectacular failure of austerity policies in Europe — has been dramatic demonstration of Keynes’s basic point:  slashing spending in a depressed economy depresses that economy further.”

Spain Is the Big Story

I know everyone’s focused on Greece, but today’s big story really is Spain.  For the first time, the interest rate on its ten-year bonds went over the magic number, 7%.  That’s the point at which Greece, Ireland, and Portugal had to get bailouts.  Spain’s economy is bigger than those three combined, so bailing out Spain would be a huge deal.

Italy’s interest rate went over 6% today.  Bailing out Italy, whose economy is bigger than Spain’s, would probably be impossible.  Italy is the third largest economy in Europe, after Germany and France.

Fifty Shades of Sado-Monetarism

From “Another Bank Bailout,” Paul Krugman, NYT:

“Most notably, last week the European Central Bank declined to cut interest rates. This decision was widely expected, but that shouldn’t blind us to the fact that it was deeply bizarre. Unemployment in the euro area has soared, and all indications are that the Continent is entering a new recession. Meanwhile, inflation is slowing, and market expectations of future inflation have plunged. By any of the usual rules of monetary policy, the situation calls for aggressive rate cuts. But the central bank won’t move.

“And that doesn’t even take into account the growing risk of a euro crackup. For years Spain and other troubled European nations have been told that they can only recover through a combination of fiscal austerity and ‘internal devaluation,’ which basically means cutting wages. It’s now completely clear that this strategy can’t work unless there is strong growth and, yes, a moderate amount of inflation in the European ‘core,’ mainly Germany — which supplies an extra reason to keep interest rates low and print lots of money. But the central bank won’t move.

“Put all of this together and you get a picture of a European policy elite always ready to spring into action to defend the banks, but otherwise completely unwilling to admit that its policies are failing the people the economy is supposed to serve.

“Still, are we much better? America’s near-term outlook isn’t quite as dire as Europe’s, but the Federal Reserve’s own forecasts predict low inflation and very high unemployment for years to come — precisely the conditions under which the Fed should be leaping into action to boost the economy. But the Fed won’t move.

“What explains this trans-Atlantic paralysis in the face of an ongoing human and economic disaster? Politics is surely part of it — whatever they may say, Fed officials are clearly intimidated by warnings that any expansionary policy will be seen as coming to the rescue of President Obama. So, too, is a mentality that sees economic pain as somehow redeeming, a mentality that a British journalist once dubbed ‘sado-monetarism.’

“Whatever the deep roots of this paralysis, it’s becoming increasingly clear that it will take utter catastrophe to get any real policy action that goes beyond bank bailouts. But don’t despair: at the rate things are going, especially in Europe, utter catastrophe may be just around the corner.”  Emphasis added.

And that utter catastrophe may put Mitt in the White House.  Catastrophe squared!