Some establishment types took the election of Donald Trump - and the implicit rejection of their omnipotence - a lot harder than others. Perhaps the arch-Keynesian himself, New York Times' Paul Krugman, is the best example, lashing out this morning at the ignorance of Trump voters once again (well they must be ignorant, right?) along with his co-conspirators Noah Smith and Brad DeLong, exclaiming:
"A fact-constrained candidate wouldn’t have been able to promise such people what they want; Trump, of course, had no problem."
And falling back to playing the race card also...
"California is an affluent state, a heavy net contributor to the federal budget; it went 2-1 Clinton. West Virginia is poor and a huge net recipient of federal aid; it went 2 1/2-1 Trump.
I don’t think any kind of economic analysis can explain this. It has to be about culture and, as always, race."
But, it was a tweet that the great "debt doesn't matter" guru blurted out this morning that has many questioning his sanity (or paranoia)...
Thought: There was (rightly) a cloud of illegitimacy over Bush, dispelled (wrongly) by 9/11. Creates some interesting incentives for Trump
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 16, 2016
We are shocked that Twitter followers have not demanded Krugman be banned, blocked, and shamed for such conspiracy theory hate-speak.
Reading between the lines of the so-called economist's comment, he appears to be suggesting that president-elect Donald Trump has an "incentive" to stage a 9/11-style terrorist attack in order to legitimize his presidency ("like Bush did"?)
Hell, we nearly had a seizure upon reading this, though not of course as bad a Kurt Eichenwald's...
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Now, does Krugman's tweet seem like real news worthy of the great New York Times' columnist or "fake news"? Is this the kind of suggestive propaganda that The CIA is hoping maintains a groundswell of "well, if he is not hitler... he must be worse" thoughts among those so easily led? Still, coming from a man who has prognosticated alien invasions as a global economic growth engine, we are not sure if he is mental situation is improving or deteriorating.