![]() No liberal democrat, social democrat, democratic socialist should have let Manchin's attack go unanswered.but Biden did. But did Biden do any public "jaw boning" in the long negotiations with Senator Joe Manchin? Hardly a critical word from him as a senator from a very poor and small state issued a philosophical critique of federal "entitlements" to strip away long overdue programs that Western Europe has enjoyed for half a century. What's the down side of that, and making the findings very public? It's part of the President's "bully pulpit" and could stand right along side Presidential jaw boning. For example: no reason the team of economic advisors (Economic Council) (or his Treasury Department) couldn't hire some of our millions of MBA's to vet some of the most dubious of price increases, especially ones at the supermarket, to make sure that there is not corporate price-gouging going on. Biden's inability to take even effective symbolic action on inflation reinforces his passive public image. Yes, much closer to the feel of every day American lives than Krugman's from his economic tool kit. ![]() Ronald Reagan rode to the presidency on that horse. As a polemical device, the index was devastating, especially in 1980, when Carter’s credit controls caused a short recession, just after the Iranian Revolution’s shock to oil prices. Republicans, gunning for Carter, availed themselves of the “ misery index,” a measure comprising the sum of the unemployment and inflation rates in a given month or year. He and I came of age, professionally, during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. No, Krugman’s problem is not too much money. He’s certainly done well, but I suspect his plebeian tastes have changed little since his junior faculty days at Yale, when I was a graduate student there. Though I have not been to Krugman’s home, I have seen his ultra-modest office at the City University of New York. Journalist Glenn Greenwald sees class bias in Krugman’s wonderment: as though Krugman were just another pampered rentier with ample cash, real estate, stocks, and bonds. ![]() So why, Krugman asks, do voters give Biden’s economy a lousy 36% approval rating? Inflation is falling, unemployment remains low, the economy is growing, and stock-market valuations are high. AUSTIN – In a recent CNN interview, Paul Krugman of The New York Times finds it hard to understand why ordinary American voters do not share his euphoric view of US President Joe Biden’s goldilocks economy – which appears to be neither hot nor cold.
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