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These days, however, the main problem comes from the right - from conservatives who, unlike most economists, really do think that the free market is always right - to such an extent that they refuse to believe even the most overwhelming scientific evidence if it seems to suggest a justification for government action.

Paul Krugman

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Paul Krugman
Age: 71
Born: 1953
Born: February 28
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More quotes by Paul Krugman

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The world economy is in a nosedive, and understanding what I call depression economics - the weird world you get into when even a zero interest rate isn't low enough, and a messed-up financial system is dragging down the real economy - is essential if we're going to avoid the worst.
Paul Krugman
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The raw fact is that every successful example of economic development this past century ... has taken place via globalization.
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I really think that people have to think safety taking risks for higher yield is a bad idea once you're in late or latish middle age.
Paul Krugman
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...instead it seems that business - like weight loss - is a subject wherein hope and fear inspire limitless gullibility.
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The key reason executives are paid so much now is that they appoint the members of the corporate board that determines their compensation and control many of the perks that board members count on. So it's not the invisible hand of the market that leads to those monumental executive incomes it's the invisible handshake in the boardroom.
Paul Krugman
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Under the gold standard America had no major financial panics other than in 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893, 1907, 1930, 1931, 1932, and 1933.
Paul Krugman
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We have a lot of evidence on what happens when you raise the minimum wage. And the evidence is overwhelmingly positive: Hiking the minimum wage has little or no adverse effect on employment while significantly increasing workers' earnings.
Paul Krugman
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However, the fact that an economist offers a theoretical analysis does not and should not automatically command respect. What is needed is some assurance that the analysis is actually relevant.
Paul Krugman
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The planet will continue to cook.
Paul Krugman
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The important thing to understand is that the case for pollution control isn't based on some kind of aesthetic distaste for industrial society. Pollution does real, measurable damage, especially to human health.
Paul Krugman
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On the political as on the economic front it's important not to fall into the not as bad as trap. High unemployment isn't O.K. just because it hasn't hit 1933 levels ominous political trends shouldn’t be dismissed just because there’s no Hitler in sight.
Paul Krugman
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I've always believed in expansionary monetary policy and if necessary fiscal policy when the economy is depressed.
Paul Krugman
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The economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth.
Paul Krugman
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Close the weak banks and impose serious capital requirements on the strong ones...You see, it may sound hard-hearted, but you cannot keep unsound financial institutions operating simply because they provide jobs.
Paul Krugman
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Asset bubbles have happened even without not-so-easy money. And, in a depressed economy, where alternative uses of money are not great, people are going to bid up the prices of profitable corporations and stuff like that.
Paul Krugman
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[D]ebt increases that didn't arise either from war or from extraordinary financial crisis are entirely associated with hard-line conservative governments.
Paul Krugman
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The economic expansion that began in 2001, while it has been great for corporate profits, has yet to produce any significant gains for ordinary working Americans. And now it looks as if it never will.
Paul Krugman
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Bad ideas flourish because they are in the interest of powerful groups.
Paul Krugman
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Obama is very much an establishment sort of guy. The whole image of him as a transcendent figure was based on style rather than substance. If you actually looked at what he said, not how he said it, he said very establishment things. He's a moderate, cautious, ameliorative guy. He tends to gravitate toward Beltway conventional wisdom.
Paul Krugman
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Coming up with a good idea, with an insight into the way the world works that is really new and that you really believe in, is a deeply satisfying experience.
Paul Krugman