Paul Krugman, One More Time

Paul Krugman is telling us in his blog post today that Congress did not actually pass any financial reform legislation after all. Either he has never heard of the Dodd-Frank bill, or he does not believe that Barney Frank is telling us the truth about what that bill will do. He asks if Mitt Romney can "really not understand that ... taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for large losses." Well, according to Barney Frank, we are not, but Congressmen do lie sometimes, so...

If Paul Krugman is correct in his criticism, here, then Barack Obama and Congress have grossly misled us about the impact of a piece of legislation which they claim to be one of their major accomplishments. Paul Krugman is famous for being wrong, so I'll assume that the "financial reform bill" known as Dodd-Frank does have essentially the effects claimed for it.

Krugman asks if Mitt is aware that, "that JPMorgan in particular has government-guaranteed deposits." One has to assume that he is referring to the FDIC, and apparently Paul Krugman is unaware that that program is funded by contributions from member banks themselves. That unawareness is part of why I'm willing to believe the Democrats, rather than him, on the effectiveness of Dodd-Frank.

It is a bit silly for Romney to blow the JP Morgan loss off as "no big deal," because it does reveal some troubling practices at that bank, but it hardly makes him the "dangerous fool" that Krugman claims.