Krugman on Hardball

Chris Matthews had Paul Krugman on yesterday's Hardball, and asked straight up "Are we going into a new Great Depression?"

While Professor Krugman said it was probably not a Great Depression, the rest of his answer was not very reassuring.

Basically Professor Krugman said the only actor who can inject money into the economy is the government.

Watch it here:

LibertyAir Blog

Two points that Paul Krugman had in his blog Conscience of a Liberal that worry me:

1. The economy is falling fast. We’ll see what tomorrow’s employment report says, but we could well be losing jobs at a rate of 450,000 or 500,000 a month.

2. Infrastructure spending will take time to get going — a new Goldman Sachs report suggests that projects that are “shovel-ready” are probably only a few tens of billions worth, and that a larger effort would take much of a year to get going. Meanwhile, it’s very questionable how much effect tax rebates will have on consumer demand. So it may be hard for stimulus to get much traction until late 2009 — and that’s even if Congress goes along, which may be a problem given all the bad analysis and disinformation out there.

So here’s what I’m wondering: will it, in fact, even be possible to pull the economy out of its nosedive before unemployment goes into double digits? I’m starting to wonder.

Crazy Rightwing Bachmann Denies She Ever Called Obama ‘Anti-American’»

I blogged a post last Friday after right-wing nutjob Representative Michele Bachmann appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball (see my post here) where she called for a McCarthy like investigation into the “anti-American views” of members of Congress. This of course ignited the Liberal Bloggasphere and Bachmann has come under a withering storm of criticism. Her opponent — Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg — has raised over $640,000 since Bachmann’s nutty comments.

Yesterday morning, Representative Bachmann tried to undo the damage she had done to her self. Appearing on the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis, St. Paul, WCCO, Bachmann denied she ever called Barack Obama’s views “anti-American.”

HOST: You do feel his [Obama’s] views are anti-American?

BACHMANN: I feel his views are concerning. I’m calling on the media to investigate them. I’m not saying that his views are anti-American. That was a misreading of what I said. And so I don’t believe that’s my position. I’m calling on the media to
take a look at what his views are.

This of course is a comple and utter lie, noteful only in how bold a lie it is. Here’s what Michele Bachmann actually said during her Hardball interview:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: So you believe that Barack Obama may have anti-American views?

BACHMANN: Absolutely. I’m very concerned he may have anti-American views.

Also in her Hardball appearance, Michelle Bachmann said:

“The news media should do a penetrating exposé [into the] views of the people in Congress and find out if they’re pro-America or anti-America.”

Return of McCarthyism

Nutjob Representatve Michele Bachmann (a Republican from Minnesota, I'm so ashamed) on MSNBC’s Hardball today called Barak Obama anti-American, and suggested that all liberal views — held by people such as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, college professors, and all Americans who identify themselves as “liberals” — are “anti-American.”

So even though I served my country in the US Marine Corps, and pay my taxes, because I believe Liberalism is the right political thought for myself, I am Anti-American. Bachmann is psychotic.

Chris Matthews, stunned by her remarks, asked Bachmann how many people in Congress hold anti-American views, she responded, “You’ll have to ask them.” Matthews really did seem to be stunned by her diatribe.

Bachmann called on the media to conduct investigations into the anti-American activities of members of Congress, similar to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s discredited House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the 1950s. “I think people would love to see an exposé like that,” she claimed.

Watch it:

LibertyAir Blog