Paul Krugman To Ron Paul: 'You're Living In A World That Was 150 Years Ago' (VIDEO)

[Dave Anderson]

click on URL for video and other stuff:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/30/paul-krugman-ron-paul_n_1465870.html


Paul Krugman To Ron Paul: 'You're Living In A World That Was 150 Years
Ago' (VIDEO)
Posted: 04/30/2012 6:05 pm Updated: 04/30/2012 10:29 pm


Econ nerds, eat your hearts out.

Paul Krugman and Ron Paul just got into it on Bloomberg TV over whose
monetary policy views are more dated. Paul struck first, calling the
idea that the Federal Reserve could effectively determine what the
proper interest rate should be "presumptuous." Then Krugman
essentially accused him of living in a fantasy universe.

"You can't leave the government out of monetary policy," Krugman said
during the not-quite-epic debate billed as "Paul vs. Paul." "If you
think that you can avoid that you're living in the world that was 150
years ago."

Not to be outdone, Paul had some choice words of his own about what
era Krugman is living in: "He wants to go back 1,000 years or 2,000
years, just as the Romans and the Greeks or others debased their
currency," Paul said.

Krugman zinged back: "I am not a defender of the economic policies of
Diocletian," referring to the Roman emperor.

U.S. policy makers established the nation's first central bank in the
late 1700s, but the Federal Reserve system as we know it didn’t stick
until about 1912, according to the Fed’s website. Paul advocates
returning to the gold standard or a monetary system where currency is
pegged to the value of gold, therefore severely limiting the role of
the Fed.

The somewhat heated exchange wasn't all that surprising considering
Krugman and Paul have almost completely opposite views. Krugman, a
left-leaning economist and Nobel laureate, has been known to defend
government intervention in the economy and expansive monetary policy
in an aim to boost growth. For his part, Paul, a Texas congressman and
Republican candidate for president, is probably the best known
advocate for sharply curtailing the role of the Federal Reserve -- his
book, after all, is called "End The Fed."


The Bloomberg debate wasn’t the first time the two come to ideological
blows. Here’s just one example: a post by Krugman about Paul called
"Speaking of people whose models have failed."