August 26, 2005
#189: But we have the stats
KRUGMAN TRUTH SQUAD
Summer of Our Discontent (08/26/05) is another egregious example of Paul Krugman’s hell-bent partisanship and disregard for facts. His mantra for the last few years has been that economic growth in the U.S. is disappointing and that post-recovery job growth has been slow. But he has been totally wrong about GDP growth and now that jobs are growing nicely also, he has switched to wages:
“American families don't care about G.D.P. They care about whether jobs are available, how much those jobs pay and how that pay compares with the cost of living. And recent G.D.P. growth has failed to produce exceptional gains in employment, while wages for most workers haven't kept up with inflation."
Oops. Wrong again. As the following Bureau of Labor Statistics table makes clear, wages are more than keeping up with inflation in all sectors of the economy as of the 1st quarter of 2005. The only possibilities for explaining Krugman’s column are that he doesn’t know any of this (incompetence) or that he is a flat out liar. We vote for the former. He is too ideologically hidebound to bother with facts anymore.
[The Truth Squad is a group of economists who have long marveled at the writings of Paul Krugman. The Squad Reports are synopses of their discussions. ]
"Jobs are growing nicely"?!?!
Well, yeah, I guess its true if you just erase 8yrs of Bill Clinton and jump directly from Bush-1 to Bush-2. But lets face it - the BEST years of job growth under Bush don't even approach Clinton's term.
I believe the recent crowing by the GOP was over about 175,000-200,000 per month job creation. But anything less than 115,000-125,000 is actually net LOSS because thats the number required just to keep abreast of population growth. So we're really only talking about, max, 85,000 new jobs per month. Plus several studies have found most are NOT high paying, not gov't, not union, in fact are basically just McJobs (minimum wage, no benefits).
And it ain't his imagination that poll after poll find the American people solidly more trustful of Democrats than the GOP now on the economy, and a solid majority believe that Bush's economic policies are hurting America and hurting them.
Heck, even Bush's own BLS concluded the average American salary today, adjusted for inflation, has less buying power than at any time since the '70s...and most people report they are only getting salary increases that barely cover inflation or not even than (hence the gov't's own conclusion that Americans are actually earning less today than 5yrs ago)!
Posted by: Zoomie at August 26, 2005 01:33 PMShorter Zoomie: "La la la, I can't hear you! La la la, I can't hear you!"
Posted by: Andrea Harris at August 26, 2005 06:17 PMI think Zoomies' point is that a good President arranges to look good by having an unsustainable boom and leaving the mess for his successor to deal with.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at August 26, 2005 07:13 PM
