First off, I’m going to link to Paul Krugman’s blog instead of the individual story links. The reason that I’m doing so is because the blog does not count against the NYT “10 free articles per month” limit, whereas the links to the actual stories would. So go here The Conscience of a Liberal and just scroll to the two stories from February 17, “What Has the Wonks Worried” and “Worried Wonks”.
Second, I’ll acknowledge up front that I may end up regretting this, but I think that what Krugman has to say and quote is worth seeing.
So what is this about? Simply put, questions regarding Gerald Friedman’s claims of the economic growth that we would “enjoy” under Bernie Sanders’ economic proposals.
I’m not going to quote much, but from Krugman’s blog, here’s the key takeaway:
But here’s what Friedman has said, in what the campaign’s policy director calls “outstanding work”:
– Real growth at 5.3 percent a year, versus a baseline of around 2
– Labor force participation rate back to 1999 level
– 3.8 percent unemployment
OK, progressives have, rightly, mocked Jeb Bush for claiming that he could double growth to 4 percent. Now people close to Sanders say 5.3???
um, yeah...sounds slightly ridiculous, doesn’t it? But note that the “outstanding work” comment is not from Sanders, but just from his policy director, so this may not reflect an actual endorsement of these dubious numbers by the candidate.
And I agree completely with Krugman’s suggestion for Bernie Sanders:
Sanders needs to disassociate himself from this kind of fantasy economics right now.
While I’m a Hillary Clinton supporter, I really and truly hope that Sanders will do exactly this. Because we really do not want or need to see these kinds of crackpot growth numbers associated with progressive economic policies. Let’s leave the crackpot finances on the right, where they belong...