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Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists Reminisce: Black Monday October 19, 1987-2012 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)13. Snow Job on Jobs By PAUL KRUGMAN (HE CALLS OUT ROMNEY)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/opinion/krugman-snow-job-on-jobs.html
...You can defend President Obamas jobs record recovery from a severe financial crisis is always difficult, and especially so when the opposition party does its best to block every policy initiative you propose. And things have definitely improved over the past year. Still, unemployment remains high after all these years, and a candidate with a real plan to make things better could make a strong case for his election.
But Mr. Romney, it turns out, doesnt have a plan; hes just faking it. In saying that, I dont mean that I disagree with his economic philosophy; I do, but thats a separate point. I mean, instead, that Mr. Romneys campaign is telling lies: claiming that its numbers add up when they dont, claiming that independent studies support its position when those studies do no such thing.
Before I get there, however, let me take a minute to talk about Mr. Romneys claim that he knows how to fix the economy because hes been a successful businessman. That would be a dubious claim even if he were honestly representing his business career, because the skills needed to run a business and those needed to manage economic policy are very different. In any case, however, his portrait of his own experience is so misleading that it takes your breath away. For Mr. Romney, who started as a business consultant and then moved into the heady world of private equity, insists on portraying himself as a plucky small businessman. I am not making this up. In Tuesdays debate, he declared, I came through small business. I understand how hard it is to start a small business. In his speech at the Republican convention, he declared, When I was 37, I helped start a small company. Ahem. Its true that when Bain Capital started, it had only a handful of employees. But it had $37 million in funds, raised from sources that included wealthy Europeans investing through Panamanian shell companies and Central American oligarchs living in Miami while death squads associated with their families ravaged their home nations. Hey, doesnt every plucky little start-up have access to that kind of financing?
...So when the (ROMNEY) campaign says that these three studies support its claims about jobs, it is, to use the technical term, lying just as it is when it says that six independent studies support its claims about taxes (they dont)...What do Mr. Romneys economic advisers actually believe? As best as I can tell, theyre placing their faith in the confidence fairy, in the belief that their candidates victory would inspire an employment boom without the need for any real change in policy. In fact, in his infamous Boca Raton 47 percent remarks, Mr. Romney himself asserted that he would give a big boost to the economy simply by being elected, without actually doing anything. And what about the overwhelming evidence that our weak economy isnt about confidence, its about the hangover from a terrible financial crisis? Never mind. To summarize, then, the true Romney plan is to create an economic boom through the sheer power of Mr. Romneys personal awesomeness. But the campaign doesnt dare say that, for fear that voters would (rightly) consider it ridiculous. So what were getting instead is an attempt to brazen it out with nakedly false claims. Theres no jobs plan; just a plan for a snow job on the American people.
...You can defend President Obamas jobs record recovery from a severe financial crisis is always difficult, and especially so when the opposition party does its best to block every policy initiative you propose. And things have definitely improved over the past year. Still, unemployment remains high after all these years, and a candidate with a real plan to make things better could make a strong case for his election.
But Mr. Romney, it turns out, doesnt have a plan; hes just faking it. In saying that, I dont mean that I disagree with his economic philosophy; I do, but thats a separate point. I mean, instead, that Mr. Romneys campaign is telling lies: claiming that its numbers add up when they dont, claiming that independent studies support its position when those studies do no such thing.
Before I get there, however, let me take a minute to talk about Mr. Romneys claim that he knows how to fix the economy because hes been a successful businessman. That would be a dubious claim even if he were honestly representing his business career, because the skills needed to run a business and those needed to manage economic policy are very different. In any case, however, his portrait of his own experience is so misleading that it takes your breath away. For Mr. Romney, who started as a business consultant and then moved into the heady world of private equity, insists on portraying himself as a plucky small businessman. I am not making this up. In Tuesdays debate, he declared, I came through small business. I understand how hard it is to start a small business. In his speech at the Republican convention, he declared, When I was 37, I helped start a small company. Ahem. Its true that when Bain Capital started, it had only a handful of employees. But it had $37 million in funds, raised from sources that included wealthy Europeans investing through Panamanian shell companies and Central American oligarchs living in Miami while death squads associated with their families ravaged their home nations. Hey, doesnt every plucky little start-up have access to that kind of financing?
...So when the (ROMNEY) campaign says that these three studies support its claims about jobs, it is, to use the technical term, lying just as it is when it says that six independent studies support its claims about taxes (they dont)...What do Mr. Romneys economic advisers actually believe? As best as I can tell, theyre placing their faith in the confidence fairy, in the belief that their candidates victory would inspire an employment boom without the need for any real change in policy. In fact, in his infamous Boca Raton 47 percent remarks, Mr. Romney himself asserted that he would give a big boost to the economy simply by being elected, without actually doing anything. And what about the overwhelming evidence that our weak economy isnt about confidence, its about the hangover from a terrible financial crisis? Never mind. To summarize, then, the true Romney plan is to create an economic boom through the sheer power of Mr. Romneys personal awesomeness. But the campaign doesnt dare say that, for fear that voters would (rightly) consider it ridiculous. So what were getting instead is an attempt to brazen it out with nakedly false claims. Theres no jobs plan; just a plan for a snow job on the American people.
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