How to Always Be Wrong (Republican economics edition)

[cthulu2016]

Three Strikes And You’re, Well, Still Playing The Same Game

...In round 1, Republicans predicted disaster from Clinton’s move to raise taxes on the 1 percent. What followed was a remarkable boom. Their faith in the crucial importance of not taxing rich people remained unchanged.

In round 2, Republicans predicted a huge boom from Bush’s tax cuts for the 1 percent. What followed was a weak recovery, followed by a huge financial crisis. Their faith in the crucial importance of not taxing rich people — and not regulating the financial industry — remained unchanged.

In round 3, Republicans predicted poor economic performance under Obama. And to be fair, the economy has not done particularly well. The crucial point, however, is the nature of the poor performance. Republicans confidently predicted Weimar 2.0 — soaring interest rates and inflation. They lambasted not just Obama but Bernanke — in fact, their attacks on Fed policy had more passion than their attacks on the stimulus, which after all didn’t last long. What actually happened, of course, was low inflation and low interest rates. Their faith in the crucial importance of not taxing rich people, not spending to help the less fortunate, and not printing money under any circumstances, remained unchanged.

The thing is, there’s no accountability — and not just in the minds of the general public. The other day I found myself talking to a currency trader, who lamented the fact that all the experts had been wrong — they’d all predicted runaway inflation and a collapse of the dollar. The point was that even this guy believed that the people who have been consistently wrong about everything for decades are the “experts”; somehow they retain that reputation despite their record...

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/three-strikes-and-youre-well-still-playing-the-same-game/

[DirkGently]

1. Politics as religion. Not helpful to anyone.

What American conservatives have pulled off so well is divorcing facts and results from policy. It's culture war now, so it's reality-proof. Someone actually said in my presence recently that, essentially, whatever has gone right under Democrats and Obama is despite them, and whatever has gone wrong is because of them.

Easy as fishin' ; no actual thought to the quality or basis for any given policy or action required.

[cthulu2016]

2. .