Paul Krugman Inadvertently Demonstrates He Doesn’t Cook
While attempting to rip Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and his adherents to shreds in his latest piece, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman seems to have revealed more about his domestic life than he intended. We refer to the passage below in which he discusses the events following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008:
One popular Austrian commentator who has advised Paul, Peter Schiff, even warned (on Glenn Beck’s TV show) of the possibility of Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation in the near future.
So here we are, three years later. How’s it going? Inflation has fluctuated, but, at the end of the day, consumer prices have risen just 4.5 percent, meaning an average annual inflation rate of only 1.5 percent.
Clearly Mr. Krugman does spend his Sundays inviting Princeton colleagues over for coffee and home-made cakes. For if he did, he would know that flour, eggs, sugar and virtually any other food item – the stuff we need to stay alive — has risen by a heck of a lot more than 4.5 percent in the past three years.
Anyone who has spent any time in a kitchen during the past three years is likely to agree that it would take a gargantuan, Ben-Bernanke-bank-bailout-sized leap of faith to believe that the cost of living has risen such a modest amount since 2008.
Even The New York Times examined the rising cost of food earlier this year.
Greek Village in Hungary in Debt; Comparison with Greece Unwarranted, Residents Say
Representatives of a small Hungarian community settled by Communist Greek refugees in the 1950s believe it is unfair to characterize their situation as a microcosm of cash-strapped Aegean nation.
Nevertheless, Beloiannisz, a village of some 1,200 residents an hour’s drive south of Budapest, has found itself in arrears and in need of a loan, according to a report on Hungarian news portal Origo.
Villagers also told Origo that, in their view, Europe was making a scapegoat out of Greece.
The village was established in the 1950s by Greeks fleeing their country’s civil war.
It was named after Nikos Beloyannis — Beloiannisz is the Hungarian spelling – a leader of the Greek Communist Party.
QE3 Coming? $100 for a Loaf of Bread? $75 for a Cup of Coffee?
Of course we jest with that headline. Last year’s release of QE2 did not cause inflation, it is simply that prices throughout the world started to rise outrageously at the same time it came out, despite a consumer price inflation measurement of 2 percent.
So there is no reason to worry about the same thing happening next time around.
Besides, the consensus among market mavens is that QE3 is not going to happen anytime soon, if it were not already on its way despite the fact it might already be here.
Ratings Agencies: We’re Really Going to Downgrade the US Next Time … Maybe … Perhaps …
While we here at this website can’t tell an AAA from a hole in the ground, we were quite certain the three large rating agencies were not going to lower their estimation of the United States in the foreseeable future.
Moody’s and Fitch have already announced that they are not about to change the US’s grade. And we are betting our unsmart money that Messrs. Standard and Poor will do the same.
Still, none of this has stopped Chinese rating agency Dagong from not giving the United States top marks.
Will Barack Obama’s Presidency Ever See an Interest Rate?
The Federal Reserve’s policy of freezing interest rates at zero began in December 2008, after Barack Obama was elected president but before he was sworn in.
This week Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke repeated his oft-heard mantra of keeping interest rates at zero for an “extended period”.
That period, 30 months thus far, or roughly two-thirds of Barack Obama’s presidency, seems likely to be extended much further. Thus the probability appears ever stronger that, at least for the first half of his administration, Barack Obama will not have seen an interest rate as leader of the free world.
