Liberal Economists Lining Up Against President Obama
It has been common for conservatives and libertarians to criticize President Obama lately, especially for his economic policies.
The attacks from fiscal hawks (myself included) have been relentless. But, what is becoming increasingly more common is to hear attacks on the President’s economic policies from the left.
I wrote earlier that Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz criticized the bailouts and argued that the type of government intervention proposed by President Obama could lower our standards of living for the next 20 years. As I mentioned in that previous article, Joseph Stiglitz has advised both President Clinton and President Obama. Interestingly enough, Joseph Stiglitz is a liberal who has been very critical of the free market and free market economists in the past.
Dr. Stiglitz is hardly the only liberal economist to criticize President Obama’s economic policies. In fact, he is not even the only liberal Nobel Prize winning economist to criticize the President’s economic policies. Recently, 2008 Nobel Prize in economics winner Paul Krugman has become a vocal critic of President Obama’s economic policies.
Paul Krugman is very much a liberal economist. He is a strong advocate of European style “social democracy” as well as welfare programs, and the welfare state. He even said of the welfare state: “I was then and still am an unabashed defender of the welfare state, which I regard as the most decent social arrangement yet devised.”
I dont agree with Krugman’s proposed solution–a nationalization of the banking industry, but I do agree that Mr. Obama’s plans will hurt the economy and the country in the long run and that his plans are the wrong way to go. Here are a few articles written by Mr. Krugman criticizing the Administration’s plans.
In one of my classes this semester [right before the passage of the “stimulus” bill], we had a guest speaker who was a labor economist who eventually became an Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Jimmy Carter. This man was very critical of Reagan, Republicans, and conservatives in general. However, he came out strongly against the “stimulus” plan. He complained that it was very expensive, that it was spending money too slow, and that it was spending money on things that wouldnt lead to job creation or real stimulus of the economy. A similar argument can be found in this writing by Robert Samuelson.
As I said above, you can expect conservative and libertarian economists to oppose the President’s economic plans. However, it is somewhat disturbing when prominent (Nobel Prize) winning liberal economists begin criticizing the President’s economic policies. Even supporter Warren Buffet has criticized the President’s plans. These liberal critics of the President’s policies, combined with the conservative and libertarian critics leads to an important question: are there any prominent economists who are not a part of this administration who support President Obama’s economic policies? I have yet to hear from any.
Americanly Yours,
Phred Barnet
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