Krugman: "I Was Kind Of Hoping Obama Might Be FDR, But Maybe Not" (VIDEO)

On "Real Time with Bill Maher" Friday night, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said that while the American dream is not totally dead, it is "dying pretty fast," particularly when it comes to social mobility. Krugman made this statement during a lengthy discussion with former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and host Bill Maher about the troubled state of the American economy and where we are in terms of reforming the system.

Both Krugman and Spitzer expressed optimism that America could right itself in the coming years if the correct steps were taken, but they were also highly critical of the degree of inequality that has become a part of American life and the lack of reform that has so far taken place.

"On bad mornings I wake up and think that we are turning into a Latin American country," Krugman said. "But on good mornings I think, well this is America, we have always in the past managed to turn ourselves around, and there is an FDR just around the corner if we could only find him. I was kind of hoping Obama might be FDR, but maybe not. "

WATCH:

Comments

[xmen1030]

06:07 PM on 09/30/2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUBIBJznWMY&feature=related

heres the clip i was talking about...

[mhazard]

11:12 PM on 10/18/2009

It's no longer available.

[xmen1030]

05:23 PM on 09/30/2009

This was the wrong clip to pull from the show. The best part was when Moore talked about hedge funds needing to be banned since regulators can't figure them out. Then when Spitzer got to respond to Moore's film and comments he said it isn't capitalism thats the problem its crony capitalism and then he went after hedge funds and derivatives complaining how investors just trade paper around and stopped investing on real growth and industry. Its scary how so few are talking about the 800 pound gorilla in the room. We can not reverse this trend of devaluing our dollar and economy without banning these credit derivatives and or hedge funds except for extreme at risk commodities..Moore should have fined tuned his message, it will probably be lost in the rant albeit a worthy one..

[Pilotincommand2]

03:01 PM on 09/28/2009

Firstt of all, why does anyone get to decide what a successful company pays their CEO?
Surely, the CEO that is responsible for a multi-million or billion dollar corp. is worth as much as a sports hero or Tom Cruise. Most CEO's earn their pay by insuring the success of their companies. The ones that don't, we all hear about in the news.

[masher]

02:10 AM on 09/29/2009

"public corporations" are not private businesses. I'm amazed how few understand the difference.
Public corporations are created by government charters. The incorporation process results in the government creating a fake person, the corporation, who is liable of most debts and most criminal actions.

Basically, corporations are a regulation. For example, if I dumped a ton of mercury in your yard then your property would be damaged. But you could sue me and a court would take all my assets and give them to you. BUT if I have a corporation, and as a CEO I happen to dump tons of mercury into the environment then it becomes nearly impossible for you to do anything about it. And my assets are protected. The government would protect me. The government would tell you that you can only sue the fake person that the government created in the incorporation.

Now do you understand why there is a difference?!

[bsulli4207]

07:00 AM on 09/29/2009

Yet when an actor's film bombs, he makes his paycheck but loses out with the reduced residuals, and when an athlete makes his salary but his team fails to make the playoffs he loses his chapionship share, but when a US business goes belly up, the CEO gets a bonus...go figure, huh?

[SaneBull]

12:11 PM on 09/28/2009

Yay stocks surging on Wall Street. Lets forget about high unemployment, wall street greed & corruption, and heath care reform. Happy days are here again for the rich, while everyone else goes though the same $h1t everyday.

good articles; http://www.iamned.com

Ppl have no money, no heath care, no home, no job, no sanity.

[Pilotincommand2]

03:13 PM on 09/28/2009

Most people, by that I mean the overwhelming majority of people, do have all those things.
The recovery of the stock market benefits everyone who works and has a retirement account or IRA or mutual fund. Most of these folks are not rich. Many are retired like my mother and Father-in-law who worked for a bakery for 45 years and has a modest retirement. The market's rise allows people to recover their life savings and live a comfortable retirement. The everyone else you talk about is not a large percentage of this great land. Too many, to be sure and they need assistance, but you are missing the 85% that have jobs and retirement accounts that they contribute to every month. Maybe if you set some goals, got an education and went after meaningful employment, it would not be the same $h1t everyday? Or do you just want to be taken care of by hardworking bakers, cops and school teachers?

[Mach8]

12:17 AM on 09/29/2009

Funny because their are a lot of unemployed college graduates who would LOVE to speak directly to you about this.

[dscotese]

12:08 PM on 09/28/2009

Krugman thinks FDR was good for this country. I know he's got some awards and stuff, and is supposedly pretty smart, but I tend to side with those who recognize all the damage that FDR did to this country. Is there anyone here who thinks that FDR didn't do ANY damage to this country?

What really gets me is that Krugman doesn't explicitly state the underlying assumptions under just about everything he advocates: People are screwing this up, and government needs to step in and intervene more to slow them down and reverse the damage they are doing. Does anyone really believe that?

I've watched things get screwed up, from family units to businesses, to countries, and in every case, there's a significant group of people who are arguing that people should have more choices, and there are too many rules and regulations, and they are ignored. When there are people that are screwing things up, it isn't the "public" - it's the legislators, the managers, the people making up more and more rules. Rules and limits are great in machines, but people are not mechanisms. Ruling them too much makes them weak and stupid. Krugman doesn't seem to get that.

But I guess a lot of people here think of him as a hero. Why is that? Is it just the award he got?

[Lyr]

12:52 PM on 09/28/2009

He was so good for the country that the constitution was amended to prevent another president for life like FDR.

[nuclearmonkeys]

01:09 PM on 09/28/2009

FDR was imperfect, however, he pulled us out of the great depression and through the darkest times of the 20th century that ushered in decades of prosperity (for all, not just the rich).

[Pilotincommand2]

03:15 PM on 09/28/2009

The war pulled us out, that's right, the military industrial complex pulled us out.

[bgladish]

03:52 PM on 09/28/2009

Keynesians have never explained why the Recession of 1921 ended so quickly (without intervention by the Federal Reserve or the government) and the Great Depression lasted so long (with massive intervention, starting almost immediately with Hoover and accelerating with FDR). Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcUmnsprQI

[Tim303]

11:39 AM on 09/28/2009

FDR had to be pushed and pushed and pushed by the unions and progressives. Even Churchill had a go.

[masher]

02:13 AM on 09/29/2009

Go reread your history.

Obama is still allowing H-1B federal regulations. Look it up and then think about it.
Obama isn't even talking about reforming these terrible regulations yet there is existing bipartisan support for reform.

Obama is Bush. Its clear as day.

[JamesinDentonTX]

10:23 AM on 09/28/2009

Beware of trolls!

[dscotese]

12:02 PM on 09/28/2009

I feel that they provide a good service, often humorous, and usually thought provoking.

Every now and then they get me, but that's just because I'm not thinking as much as I ought.

How about you?

Does this make me one?

[JamesinDentonTX]

12:44 PM on 09/28/2009

I see what you mean, I just wish some people would put actual thought into their posts, instead of whining and insulting everyone. They know who they are.

[jmpurser]

09:19 AM on 09/28/2009

Too be fair, Obama never gave any real signs of being another FDR. I think it was perfectly clear to many of us that he would be facing FDR sized challenges so we HOPED he could rise to the challenge.

That was the audacity of our hope that was subsequently crushed by the reality of Obama's administration. Today I can't see any sign that we will begin to fix any of the nation's ills while he's in office.

[DCBarrister]

10:24 AM on 09/28/2009

In other words, Obama was a hoax from day one, just like GW Bush.

Keep the change, we need a President.

Hillary 2012

[Tim303]

11:40 AM on 09/28/2009

There are no barristers in America. You are a Brit.

[jmpurser]

01:48 PM on 09/28/2009

Obama had to fall to where Hillary started off.

[mhazard]

11:31 PM on 10/18/2009

These are the kind of posts that make me sick to my stomach.

How fast is he supposed to accomplish all of these fixes. He has been in office less than a year, inherited a big mess from the previous administration, is working with a congress that is extremely partisan, having to deal with the bashing that comes from the media on a daily basis and suddenly you are giving up hope. How sad.

[RandVictims]

07:46 AM on 09/28/2009

Time to replace Capitalism completely.

[themodernleader]

07:10 AM on 09/28/2009

I was kind of hoping that Professor Krugman would galvanizze his colleagues to come up with working knowledge supporting government intervention to create jobs for the jobless, and to protect domestic manufacturing and other businesses from outsourcing and targeted imports. I was kinda hoping that our intelligentisia would turn from their corporate masters and other wealthy clients and start advocating for the ordinary American people who originally placed them in power and influence.

[OrangeCatholic]

09:18 AM on 09/28/2009

Krugman is one of the few 'intelligentisia' who consistently speaks out. Most TV commentators are too busy calling the horse-race to say what side they are on. Funny thing to say, but I think it's such a cop-out for journalists to not have (or not admit) their bias. Krugman was pretty clear, don't you think?

[DCBarrister]

10:30 AM on 09/28/2009

Absolutely.
The starry-eyed media has a crush on Obama and are in perpetual campaign mode, while Krugman is calling it the way it really is.

Keep the change, we wanted a President who can lead.

Hillary 2012

[Pilotincommand2]

03:20 PM on 09/28/2009

The government can't create jobs or they would have. Fedex can, UPS can but the post office runs in the red by billions. That's how government creates jobs. Don't forget Amtrak and every other enterprise the government is involved in. Don't agree, then prove me wrong. If that fails you could just call me a name.

[DCBarrister]

05:30 PM on 09/28/2009

The government can't create jobs?

Open your high school history book and read up on the New Deal.

[blico]

06:50 AM on 09/28/2009

So - Krugman has an indepth talk with Maher, that will improve his credibility with a lot of folks. More like FDR! - how about this quoute from Henry Morganthau, FDR's Sec of Treasury, to congress in May of 1939.
"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!"*

[kappa08]

09:05 AM on 09/28/2009

I think a Nobel peace prize delivered by a foreign land(much older and wiser than frat boy America) gives him ALL the credibility he needs...Your problem with Mahr is that he picks the scab off of who American really is. Obese, weak and unable to DO ANYTHING.....

The EU just passed a resolution to ban making and selling 100watt bulbs for more efficient 21st century gear. Do you actually think THIS country could do that? hahahahahahahaha
We would have fa* toothless idiot picketing the streets calling it socialism and it being their right to be piggish. Along with knee jerk Congressman killing the bill because his 1 factory that employees 30 minimum wage Americans will be in jeopardy....

It sounds like smart is not your cup of "tea"....

[Lyr]

12:48 PM on 09/28/2009

it's not a nobel peace prize. It's not even really a nobel, it's an award handed out by the swiss central bank in honor of alfred nobel, and it has a history of bieng controvesial.

[Pilotincommand2]

03:27 PM on 09/28/2009

We could ban that bulb if a majority of the people in this country wanted to and they were willing to hold their representatives accountable to bring it to them, but they don't. Thats how it is supposed to work except in a land where you are King. It it too much to ask to let me go to the store and buy a freakin light bulb that is bright enough to read by. I guess so. Maybe the smart people could just make all of our choices for us since that "freedom" idea is probably overrated anyway.

[jmpurser]

09:45 AM on 09/28/2009

Good thing that "money saving" WWII came along and got us out of the depression.

Just for grins: Who's economic theories do you think that proved correct?

[blico]

07:57 PM on 09/28/2009

Whose theories? I'm sure I don't know - how about you let us know! I do know that your hero FDR was not correct about fixing the depression, WWII ended that for us. I do know that going further into debt to fix a debt problem is counterintuitive.

[platanoman]

04:36 AM on 09/28/2009

FDR didn't have to deal with so-called blue dogs aka fake dems

[DCBarrister]

10:26 AM on 09/28/2009

No, FDR had to deal with the Great Depression and the looming WWII global war.
And FDR didn't have the internet, Twitter, 24 hour cable news or technology from the 21st century.

Obama has everything he needs to fix these problems..except for a spine, integrity and concern for ordinary Americans.

Keep the change, America wanted Hillary.

Hillary 2012

[peskime]

10:43 AM on 09/28/2009

America rejected Hillary, I know I did.

Obama has been in office for a short amount of time, are you really so guileless to believe things would be any better if Hillary was in office today? She would be cleaning up Bushs
mess just like Obama is.

[BBackSoon]

11:12 AM on 09/28/2009

I think you’re downright delusional if you think that Hillary could have done any better. The reason I say that is we saw how the Right attacked and blocked Pres. Clinton and how they are trying to do the same to Pres. Obama , what makes you think they would have simply sat quietly and said ‘Yes she has some good ideas.’

While I am disappointed in the lack of real Change from Obama, I think Hillary is such a polarizing person that we would have seen even worse roadblocks than we have right now.

[QuiteSeriously]

04:01 AM on 09/28/2009

You mean FDR the community organizer and constitutional lawyer? President Obama is a unique individual and has a unique style of "Presidenting". Most people haven't figured it out yet. I was kind of hoping some of the really smart people like Krugman would have started to figure it out, but maybe not. History will judge.

[OrangeCatholic]

09:27 AM on 09/28/2009

I've been paying close attention and I'm aware that our President can operate in a subtle and/or indirect fashion. But subtlety can be confused with inaction, and indirectness can fail to reverberate.

Another way of putting it is, if I'm unsure what's going on, whats the hope of Joe Sixpack? If there's one thing Bush was good at, it was making it abundantly clear what every American's job was.

[mhazard]

11:38 PM on 10/18/2009

Except his and Cheney's.

[DCBarrister]

10:28 AM on 09/28/2009

On his best day, Barack Obama isn't even in the top 20 of smartest US Presidents. FDR was way smarter, and any honest person who reads books will admit that Bill Clinton is a genius.

Obama isn't even smarter than Carter.

[land2341]

10:40 AM on 09/28/2009

Bill Clinton may have his good points, but much of today's troubles lie firmly at his doorstep. Trust me, I chaffed under every day of Bush's rule, but it was the seeds Clinton planted that are bearing fruit today. :NAFTA, repeal of Glass-Segall (as a boon to his business buddies), opening the door to media conglomeration that stifled democratic news media instead of oligarchy puppets.....

Clinton said not that long ago that he did not regret repealing Glass-Segall even though most point to it as the fertilizer that turned a bubble into an atomic explosion.

[Lahonda]

11:56 PM on 09/27/2009

I was hoping Krugman would be supporting Obama, but NO! He's simply has a picket up his posterior from sitting on the fence.

[kappa08]

09:09 AM on 09/28/2009

he has NO reason to follow the BS....as do most mildly intelligent people.

Telecom Immunity-check
Gitmo still open-check
No real bank regulating-check
continuing a gutless war-check
unable to show leadership with health care-check

...maybe your ok with hollow calories. Krugman the Nobel peace prize winner and scores of other Obama "supporters" have had enough of his feckless style and light touch with bullies that have been holding this country hostage for the past 30 years....but you go ahead and sign that petition. It suits you.....

[DCBarrister]

10:28 AM on 09/28/2009

Touchdown.

[JamesinDentonTX]

01:33 PM on 09/28/2009

Well Sarah Palin thought she could stand up to the oil companies in alaska and she got spanked because they hold all the cards. Unfortunately, Obama has the same dilemna, he can either compromise, or he can get nothing.. Over time, if people quit whining and stay engaged, we might be able to right the ship of state. We need to continue to criticize Obama, but giving up on him and calling him names is going to lead to the opposite of progress. Oh yeah, it takes time to wind down a war, and Gitmo will close at some point. Helath care will pass, even if it's watered down, and financial reforms will too, if people like you stay involved. The progress I think we all want will take years to achieve and it will be messy and often disappointing.

[bgladish]

11:24 PM on 09/27/2009

Hoping Obama would be FDR... Wow! 15 years of depression (recovery only occurred on exit from the war)? Entry into a war in which 418,500 Americans died (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties)? Yes, what could be better? 20 years of depression and millions dead?

[land2341]

10:43 AM on 09/28/2009

You could always hope he will turn out to be like his own personal favorite president and be just like Lincoln. See where that gets you.

[DCBarrister]

11:07 AM on 09/28/2009

Obama did try to pattern himself after Lincoln...small problem...Lincoln didn't win any elections until he lied about where he was born and raised and reinvented himself.

Lincoln...dishonest politician, played the race card...

Yeah I see the similarities with BHO

[BBackSoon]

11:19 AM on 09/28/2009

Nope your wrong, Recovery started but FDR was persuaded by Republicans in 1937 - 8 to balance the budget and is caused the Depression to continue several more years.

And as far as WWII goes, it wasn’t like we started it. Why do you think we still have ‘Limited conflicts’ today? Because war is good for Business.

[DCBarrister]

05:35 PM on 09/28/2009

War is good for business?

Bush's war is about to last over twice as long as WWII. How's business in our country for ordinary Americans? Not so hot.

Try another one.

Trickle down GOP economics always fails...yet Obama continues Bush's policies.

Keep the change.

Hillary 2012