{"id":6137,"date":"2011-08-16T15:29:50","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T19:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=6137"},"modified":"2011-08-16T15:30:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T19:30:29","slug":"an-alien-invasion-would-boost-the-economy%e2%80%a6says-paul-krugman-keynesian-economics-expert-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/an-alien-invasion-would-boost-the-economy%e2%80%a6says-paul-krugman-keynesian-economics-expert-video.html","title":{"rendered":"AN ALIEN INVASION WOULD BOOST THE ECONOMY\u2026SAYS PAUL KRUGMAN, Keynesian Economics Expert (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Paul Krugman, Keynesian economics, Professor at Princeton University, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (2008)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

PAUL KRUGMAN’S EXPLANATION OF KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2018s start out by saying that Paul Krugman probably doesn\u2019t really think the government should lie to the country about alien invaders attacking the world just to boost the economy and create jobs. Still, that\u2019s the analogy he used while appearing with Fareed Zakaria on CNN and trying to explain the brilliance of Keynesian economics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we discovered that, you know, space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then if we discovered, oops, we made a mistake, there aren\u2019t any aliens, we\u2019d be better\u2013.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cNo. There was a \u2018Twilight Zone\u2019 episode like this, in which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace. Well, this time we don\u2019t need it [to achieve world peace]; we need it in order to get some fiscal stimulus.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the way, it should be noted that Krugman\u2019s comments came in response to Zakaria defending the Keynesian idea that the government could dig ditches and employ people to fill them in order to stimulate the economy:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=E1Fzzs7oVaA&feature=player_embedded<\/a>\n

Eagle-eyed blogger Zombie notes that the alien plot actually originates form an \u201cOuter Limits\u201d episode, not \u201cThe Twilight Zone.\u201d And Hot Air\u2019s Ed Morrissey picks apart the Keynesian\/Krugman\/Zakaria economic theory:<\/p>\n

Krugman, who won a Nobel Prize in economics, somehow forgets to tell Zakaria that seizing capital from productive enterprises in taxes (or worse, borrowing against future legitimate production in deficit spending) to fund the \u201cditch cycle\u201d has opportunity costs \u2014 namely, the opportunity to produce something other than pre-filled ditches, which have a real value of zero. That\u2019s actually a significant part of what\u2019s wrong now. Government spending doesn\u2019t create economic growth; it takes money from actual production, and so should be used sparingly and only for necessities.<\/p>\n

Krugman then takes Zakaria\u2019s reductio ad absurdum and makes it more absurd by postulating that a mistaken alarm of a space invasion would create vast economic growth, which would just remain even after the Emily Litella moment when the space aliens didn\u2019t invade. Unfortunately, the Nobel Prize-winning economist doesn\u2019t explain what would happen when all of the assets built to meet the threat turn out to be useless and can\u2019t be converted into productive assets for a non-space-war economy. Thanks to the massive seizure of capital it would take to create the defensive and offensive assets to meet that threat, we\u2019d be left with little to power our economy, especially in a highly regulatory (and rationed) total-war economy.
\nI guess you could call it \u201cfar out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: http:\/\/www.theblaze.com\/stories\/krugman-tries-to-explain-keynesian-economics-with-alien-invasion-analogy\/<\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  PAUL KRUGMAN’S EXPLANATION OF KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS Let\u2018s start out by saying that Paul Krugman probably doesn\u2019t really think the government should lie to the country about alien invaders attacking the world just to boost the economy and create jobs. Still, that\u2019s the analogy he used while appearing with Fareed Zakaria on CNN and trying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":403,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[256,557,704,223,137,1121,1502,705,95,1498,1354,450,434,1838,1516,167,806],"tags":[2259,1276,2260,1440,2258],"class_list":["post-6137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brainwashing","category-business","category-economics","category-economy","category-education","category-failed-policies","category-godlessness","category-government-2","category-inflation","category-insanity","category-liberals","category-politics","category-propaganda","category-public-government-schools","category-u-s-debt","category-video","category-warning","tag-alien-invasion-boost-economy","tag-keynesian-economics","tag-nobel-memorial-prize-in-economics-2008","tag-paul-krugman","tag-princeton-professor"],"yoast_head":"\nAN ALIEN INVASION WOULD BOOST THE ECONOMY\u2026SAYS PAUL KRUGMAN, Keynesian Economics Expert (video) - Watchwoman on the Wall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/an-alien-invasion-would-boost-the-economy\u2026says-paul-krugman-keynesian-economics-expert-video.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AN ALIEN INVASION WOULD BOOST THE ECONOMY\u2026SAYS PAUL KRUGMAN, Keynesian Economics Expert (video) - Watchwoman on the Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  PAUL KRUGMAN’S EXPLANATION OF KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS Let\u2018s start out by saying that Paul Krugman probably doesn\u2019t really think the government should lie to the country about alien invaders attacking the world just to boost the economy and create jobs. 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