Paul Krugman: President Ronald Reagan Was A Keynesian

The New York Times:

There’s no question that America’s recovery from the financial crisis has been disappointing. In fact, I’ve been arguing that the era since 2007 is best viewed as a “depression,” an extended period of economic weakness and high unemployment that, like the Great Depression of the 1930s, persists despite episodes during which the economy grows. And Republicans are, of course, trying — with considerable success — to turn this dismal state of affairs to their political advantage.

Read the whole story at The New York Times

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[MrUniteUs]

09:19 PM on 03/13/2013

paul-krugman-says ronald-reagan was Keynesian. Reagan greatly expanded goverment payroll and more than doubled spending.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/08/paul-krugman-ronald-reagan_n_1579796.html

[jimfurl179]

02:24 PM on 06/09/2012

Yes, I believe Keynes would have advocated reducing taxes with relatively high unemployment and excess production capacity. Does he have a real point?

[jstanavgguy]

02:41 PM on 06/16/2012

The same point that he always has - which is that conservatives are evil, and spending everything we have is the only solution.

[bldr1bob]

06:54 PM on 06/08/2012

Same thing every day Krugman. Give it up..........

"A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”
~Winston Churchill”

[jlessig]

04:05 PM on 06/08/2012

Sure Krugman, Reagan was the reckless spender and Obama is the fiscal conservative. It is a very provocative, if not pathological revision of history. If we were to summarize the difference, it is pretty stark. Under Reagan, government revenues grew, government expenditures grew faster. Obama has seen government revenues decline to stagnation while government spending has exploded.

Reagan could ask people "are you better off today than you were 4 years ago?" and, according to the election of 1984, the largest electoral landslide in our history, the answer was a resounding YES.

Does Obama dare ask such a question? Not a chance. Instead, we will see a very scripted narrative that will make dubious claims, a MSM that will readily comply with the narrative, plenty of blame for economic sluggishness for all but Obama himself, new promises, empty platitudes, and soaring speeches that will try to convince people that what they see and feel simply isn't so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc

The difference between Reagan and Obama is very clear. Churchill said it best, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

[rip15]

06:46 PM on 06/08/2012

Way to soak up the propaganda. One statement is curious: you say"Under Reagan,government revenues grew,government expenditures grew faster." I think you need to review your crib notes about that expenditures part. The official story is that Reagan cut government(while expanding the size and reach of said government)Keep rewriting history, it worked so well for the Soviet Union.

[jlessig]

09:32 PM on 06/08/2012

When expenditures grow, that means government grows.  Just trying to help you there.  Of course, the Democrats were in charge of the purse strings.  By the way, the vast majority of the debt accumulated under Bush came during his last two years.  Who was in charge of Congress and appropriations?  The same people who gave us Obamacare and Dodd/Frank.

[jstanavgguy]

02:42 PM on 06/16/2012

Actually, spending DID increase under Reagan.

Thanks to the Democrat controlled Congress

[idisVA]

08:30 PM on 06/08/2012

Republican propaganda and an attempt at revisionism. Under Reagan, government GREW larger than under President Obama. Repeat a lie over and over, low information voters will take it a gage truth.

[jlessig]

10:33 PM on 06/08/2012

Has government grown under Obama? If your answer is no, who is lying?

[jstanavgguy]

02:43 PM on 06/16/2012

Um, you are aware that Obama has tripled the deficit.

Not the debt, the yearly budget deficit, right?

[Sandmanj]

03:40 PM on 06/08/2012

Teabug heads are exploding all over the world today.

[SteveFromEuless]

10:32 AM on 06/09/2012

Ditto - Faved.
Something like this clip. Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MhgnMX73Pw

[Morgantheaxe]

03:32 PM on 06/08/2012

The ironic part about this is the only decent Republican President in the last fifty years has been George H. W. Bush but he got totally hosed by the economic implossion caused by Reagan's horrible economic policies.

[regularguynyc]

03:09 PM on 06/08/2012

I won't argue that Reagan spent, even raising the deficit. He even raised taxes in certain instances but overall a net tax "decreaser". What Krugman conveniently omits, as he always does, is that GDP skyrocketed under Reagan's policies of deregulation, thus making the debt a much smaller part of GDP. Reagan decreased entitlements that caused a forward drain on the federal budget and fostered an atmosphere of private sector growth not seen in our lifetime...The Left always seems to "cherry pick" statistics of convenience rather than look at the entire body of work, especially when it comes to Ronald Reagan....

[bigmaddy]

03:16 PM on 06/08/2012

Talk about cherrypicking

[regularguynyc]

03:28 PM on 06/08/2012

What was cherry-picked?

[jimfurl179]

02:32 PM on 06/09/2012

Yea, its ALWAYS cherrypicking to grow GDP. ROFLMFAO.

[Morgantheaxe]

03:17 PM on 06/08/2012

What you cherry pick and conveniently leave out is there was a net reduction in tax "rates" but closure of loop holes resulted in net tax increases when you look at adjusted taxes. There is absolutely no debate what so ever that Reagan's budgets were monstrously huge government spending orgasms. He tried to pawn this off as being caused by "welfare queens" and "congressional pork" but the budgets passed by congress varied from Reagans submitted budgets by less than 1%.

The GRAND ARCH CONSERVATIVE Ronald Reagan spent like a drunken sailor and raised taxes.

[regularguynyc]

02:23 PM on 06/09/2012

Just the opposite, as corporate and personal tax rates decreased money flowed more freely...thus the increase in tax revenue.

[addisonsteele]

03:02 PM on 06/08/2012

Shortly after being elected governor of California, Reagan signed into law the largest proportional tax increase (equivalent to one-third of the existing state budget) in US history. With the exception of his first year as President, Reagan increased taxes every other year of his presidency. Of course, he increased taxes only on the middle class and poor, but he increased taxes.

[JaxArab]

02:52 PM on 06/08/2012

Mr Krugman needs some anger management.

[Raglimidechi]

02:01 PM on 06/08/2012

I think the point here is that the connection between political rhetoric and reality is tenuous at best. Clearly in this election Obama's rhetoric is reasonably connected to reality whereas Romney is out to lunch. Way out. Voting for him would be like shooting dice. Feeling lucky?

[Enroh Mot]

02:15 PM on 06/08/2012

Some of my friends own NASCAR teams and they would like a car elevator installed at the White House, the only good reason to vote for Romney.

[ThreeKingsDad]

03:42 PM on 06/08/2012

Shooting dice? I'd say its Russian roulette.

[radmo]

01:50 PM on 06/08/2012

Just what type of psychedelic-induced revisionist history is this clown trying to peddle now? What a hack. Obviously not a very bright one at that. Talk about further tarnishing the concept of the Nobel Prize.......

[theaustralian]

01:58 PM on 06/08/2012

read up on the reagan administration.

[fatherofbarmitzvah]

01:58 PM on 06/08/2012

Obviously you are very smart judging by this post. Where are you hiding? We need you help!

[Cibeles]

01:39 PM on 06/08/2012

Republicans worship a god made of straw. They will go down in history as the party of old ideas. Even as society advances, they keep beating that drum, chanting "smaller government" while embracing bigger military. They cheer war while their own people fall into poverty, and the country's infrastructure collapses. What's frustrating is how effectively they spew their lies. It was a mistake for Obama to enable their mantra of fiscal discipline, balancing budgets and spending cuts-- He shouldn't have been so willing to appear compromising to the very ideas that presided over calamity. Ideas that are dangerous in their current fervent doses. It allowed them to retake control of congress and now stand in a position to retake control of the highest office in the land. Too bad Americans have short memory spans.

[Enroh Mot]

01:48 PM on 06/08/2012

Too many live in the United States of Amnesia.

[theaustralian]

01:59 PM on 06/08/2012

so do democrat voters with their clinton fetish.

[Markrsm]

01:26 PM on 06/08/2012

Dear Friends,

Mr Krugman is not a Keynesian at all. While Mr Keynes looked at many aspects of the great depression, he stated that in a open system of trade, that reduciton on real wages would increase employment..

We live in a open system and teh only solution that works is reduction on the cost of producing something.

We could do this with reduciton on labor costs or energy cost very easily

[Enroh Mot]

01:36 PM on 06/08/2012

In other words, destroy the unions and lower wages, while corporate profits and CEO's pay is soaring, that's the Republican plan alright.

[Raglimidechi]

02:07 PM on 06/08/2012

Destroy unions, yes, for all the obvious reasons. Then destroy retirement, and then destroy childhood. Just think of the money to be made from the ability to exploit seniors and kids!

[martman1]

01:48 PM on 06/08/2012

Good plan. Let's get average wages down to $1 per day and watch profits soar. Oh wait, the customers won't have any money.

The Fortune 500 earned $700 billion in profits last year with about 25 million employees or $28,000 per employee.....after paying them - I'd say there is room to raise wages.

[Raglimidechi]

02:06 PM on 06/08/2012

Henry Ford was no teabag. He paid his workers enough to be able to buy the product they were making.

[janeInCA]

01:25 PM on 06/08/2012

Whoever were behind Reagan presidency are responsible for the mental illed homelesses on the streets of Calinornia now. Don't bring them back to pay them to govern the nation.

[Cibeles]

01:41 PM on 06/08/2012

Reagan was a terrible governor

[Brent Fidler]

01:22 PM on 06/08/2012

Has he lost his mind? It's as if this man lives in opposite world, on the other side of the sun.

[bholesurfers]

02:46 PM on 06/08/2012

Don't know much about Reagan do ya?

[American In Chicago]

03:07 PM on 06/08/2012

Or, maybe your apparent understanding of history is the result of deliberate disinformation. He offers verifiable numbers to back up his contention. Where are your facts to cast doubt on what he is saying here?