Paul Krugman to Disgruntled Americans: You're Not Struggling in This Economy, You Just ‘Hate’ Biden

January 12th, 2024 2:35 PM

The New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman has figured out why so many Americans aren’t properly grateful for the Biden economy, and his conclusion is quite a doozy. 

MSNBC Legal Analyst Jill Wine-Banks asked Krugman why Americans “keep feeling basically depressed about the economy, even though all the numbers really do show, and all the serious economic commentators tell us that everything is fine again” during the Jan. 9 edition of iGen Politics. Serious economic commentator Krugman chose to ignore the many issues facing Americans in Biden’s economy and blame partisanship for America’s dim view of Bidenomics. Krugman said, “A lot of it is simply — a lot of people who say the economy is lousy —what they’re really saying is, ‘I hate the idea that a Democrat is president.’” Ah, so Americans who are having to pay an extra $11,000 a year just to maintain a standard of living they had in 2021 are just being dumb, right Krugman? 

During the same interview, Krugman chose to address crime and the economy at the same time, arriving at a very surprising conclusion: “We’re Back Baby.” 

Krugman also claimed credit for being an early adopter of the idea that there is a severe disconnect between what he perceives to be the goldilocks state of the economy and how Americans feel about it. This bit of condescending propaganda has been relentlessly pushed by leftist outlets like CNN

After Wine-Banks finished laughing at struggling Americans, Krugman made a grudging admission that maybe the fact that prices remain higher than they used to be has bothered some Americans. No kidding.

“One possibility also is just that people’s reference point, economists like to look at inflation over the past year, or particularly when you’re trying to assess trends in the economy you want to look at the last six months. People’s sense of what things ought to cost--reaches farther back than that, maybe two years or more,” Krugman said. He went on to add, “Inflation has–really plunged since early 2023 which means that inflation over the past two or three years still looks elevated and that may be affecting people’s perceptions.” It’s unclear why Krugman continues to double down on the false notion that inflation “plunged” even as it continues to increase albeit at a slower rate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released its report showing that consumer price inflation came in hotter-than-expected in December at 3.4 percent. 

Kudos to Krugman for at least recognizing that not every American has the memory of a goldfish when it comes to remembering how prices used to be a few years ago. Under President Biden, Americans endured an average 5.9 percent monthly inflation rate from Feb. 2021 to August 2023. Too bad for Krugman’s narrative that Americans still remember when the average monthly inflation rate used to be just 1.9 percent over the course of the Trump Presidency (Feb. 2017 to Jan. 2021). 

Conservatives are under attack. Contact The New York Times at 1 (800) 698-4637 and demand it distance itself from Krugman’s economic nonsense.