Paul Krugman Was Shrill...

Mark Thoma directs us to Paul Krugman in happier times, when things were better managed and he could honorably focus his time on... other issues than the incompetence, mendacity, malevolence, and disconnection from reality of George W. Bush and his administration:

Economist's View: "There are Some Core Beliefs That are Wrong in This Administration": This is an interview with Paul Krugman that took place a little over twelve years ago. It's a reminder that being a Democratic president doesn't save you from Krugman's critical eye. It also has a very familiar ring to it:

CNN News, March 25, 1994: This [Clinton administration] is an administration which, despite all of the advice from economists who really know something about it, has decided that foreigners are our problem, that competition with Japan, competition with the Third World, outsiders are responsible for our jobs problems, that getting tough with the rest of the world is the priority, not dealing with our own domestic problems.... The reason we have a trade deficit is... we don't save enough. That's a domestic problem.... [T]o a large degree, foreigners are doing us a favor by lending us money which is the other side of our trade deficit....

We have... some real arguments with the Japanese... the Japanese are not lovable. I wish that they... would behave better, but it's a little bit like saying "look, my neighbor's annoying me, so I'm gonna start trashing his back yard. I'm gonna kill his dog."... [W]e're taking what is really a sort of third rate dispute with Japan and making it the centerpiece of our economic policy....

We can get into a situation where we start retaliating against the Japanese, they retaliate against us. The Europeans say yeah, we'll do that too... it would be really damaging to the world economy and especially to smaller countries.... [I]n this administration no one dares say a word against exports [and their promotion]. Exports have become God....

[Clinton's] done some good things, and there are some very good economists in the administration, but there are some core beliefs that are wrong in this administration and some key people who were put in their positions because they shared those core beliefs who are doing a lot of damage...