Krugman is Outraged

Paul Krugman is so outraged by Obama’s support for bankers bonuses that he has written two days in a row to express his dismay that our President can “be so clueless.” Part of me has to wonder why he is just now noticing that; I have been aware of Obama’s ability to come out with marvels of tone deafness since his remark about “clinging to guns and religion.”

But I am more amazed by how puerile Krugman can be when he leaves his field of expertise, which is economics, and expounds on things that he knows little about, such as finance or politics. In this case he is comparing the “government supported banking business” to the baseball industry, which “isn’t the beneficiary of a massive and continuing taxpayer bailout.” He thinks it’s okay for the baseball players to make those huge salaries, but not for the bankers because the banks are supported by government (taxpayer) bailouts.

Well, Professor, baseball is the beneficiary of a government sponsored monopoly which allows it to spend as lavishly as it does. If it did not enjoy that exemption from anti-trust laws, an exemption which benefits no one other than baseball owners and the players who draw those lavish salaries, then New York would have at least eleven major league baseball teams and a whole bunch of minor ones, just as London has eleven major league soccer teams and a whole bunch of minor ones. Owners and players would not become multi-millionaires, and tickets to games would be priced such that high school kids could buy them weekly out of their allowances. One would not have to have the salary of a Paul Krugman or Keith Olbermann in order to attend New York baseball games.

So, Professor Krugman, the government is as supportive of those baseball millionaires as it is of the bankers you despise so much. Obama being okay with both baseball players and bankers receiving wealth is both consistent and unsurprising. He will be running for reelection in a few years, and his campaign cash comes from people who have money, Professor, not from people who don’t have jobs.