Paul Krugman: America Isn’t a Corporation

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/opinion/krugman-america-isnt-a-corporation.html?_r=1

America Isn’t a Corporation
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 12, 2012

“And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.”

snip//

Now, to be fair, being a career politician isn’t necessarily a better preparation for managing economic policy than being a businessman. But Mr. Romney is the one claiming that his career makes him especially suited for the presidency. Did I mention that the last businessman to live in the White House was a guy named Herbert Hoover? (Unless you count former President George W. Bush.)

And there’s also the question of whether Mr. Romney understands the difference between running a business and managing an economy.

Like many observers, I was somewhat startled by his latest defense of his record at Bain — namely, that he did the same thing the Obama administration did when it bailed out the auto industry, laying off workers in the process. One might think that Mr. Romney would rather not talk about a highly successful policy that just about everyone in the Republican Party, including him, denounced at the time.

But what really struck me was how Mr. Romney characterized President Obama’s actions: “He did it to try to save the business.” No, he didn’t; he did it to save the industry, and thereby to save jobs that would otherwise have been lost, deepening America’s slump. Does Mr. Romney understand the distinction?

America certainly needs better economic policies than it has right now — and while most of the blame for poor policies belongs to Republicans and their scorched-earth opposition to anything constructive, the president has made some important mistakes. But we’re not going to get better policies if the man sitting in the Oval Office next year sees his job as being that of engineering a leveraged buyout of America Inc.

[PA Democrat]

1. K & R

[valerief]

2. Mittens is a corporation, though. nt

[Beavker]

5. Great idea....

After we get rid of this "Corporations are People" bullshit, we should ram through legislation with certain guidelines that would strip people like Mitt of his 'personhood', and officially make him a 'Corporation'.

He could then be bought by the highest bidder and broken apart and sold to the highest bidder.

Great for filling the needs for organ donation.

[valerief]

13. I'll bet he has great organs. For a robot. nt

[da_decider]

3. GOP loons

It was hilarious to see GOP candidates, especially Gingrich, bitching about Romney and his SuperPACs spending like crazy demolishing other GOP candidates, especially Gingrich in negative ads. These morons can not see the irony, they advocated allowing corporations spend unlimited $$, they supported Citizens United. Guess what, what goes around, comes around.
Thank the corrupt conservative judges on Supreme Court, republicans. They sold our democracy to the highest bidder

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. Blue Horseshoe Loves Endicott Steel

[jwirr]

6. Right to the point as usual. Love this guy.

[SunsetDreams]

7. K&R This is a distinction that gets lost on so many

"But what really struck me was how Mr. Romney characterized President Obama’s actions: “He did it to try to save the business.” No, he didn’t; he did it to save the industry, and thereby to save jobs that would otherwise have been lost, deepening America’s slump. Does Mr. Romney understand the distinction?"

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.

[DallasNE]

9. Romney Needs To Get On The Phone With Frank Luntz

Not once did Romney mention Luntz's bulletproof, focus group tested "economic freedom". Instead he left himself wide open to attack from the likes of Krugman. lol

And Krugman is spot on to point out the flip-flop Romney has done here regarding the auto industry bailout and his embracing bailouts as a useful policy while at Bain. In the process of this flip-flop Romney attempts to equate his top down policy of bankrupcy with the bottom up policy to save jobs in an industry by avoiding bankrupcy, as Krugman rightfully points out. Game, set, match.

So when will Romney reach for the teflon and spray the economic freedom message about as Luntz instructed. It certanly has backfired doing it Romney's way thanks to Krugman.

[wakemewhenitsover]

10. K&R. Damn smart guy, that Krugman.

[usrname]

11. Well...

Being a professor at Princeton and a Nobel Prize winner in economics generally suggest a correlation to intelligence.

[wakemewhenitsover]

12. Good point.

I know plenty of professors, even Ivy League professors, who do not possess Krugman's brand of intelligence, which I see as a rare combination of predictive insight coupled with clarity of thought and expression. However, Nobel Prize winners comprise a more rarefied group, and the fact that Krugman is also Noble laureate definitely increases the odds of his being fucking sharp as all hell. I remember when he identified the real estate bubble way ahead of the pack. (Wish I'd acted on his warning, btw!)