Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Ron Paul Just Went To Battle Against Paul Krugman—Here's What You Missed

Two polar economic opposites, Ron Paul and Paul Krugman, just faced off on Bloomberg TV.
You can read the full text below, but here are some key points:
  • Naturally, the two of them didn't agree on virtually anything and mostly talked past each other.
  • Ron Paul said his goal wasn't to end the Fed, but to create competing currencies. Basically he wants to end the Fed's monopoly.
  • Krugman says that in the modern era, there's no separating the government from monetary policy. And Krugman denied that he's somehow anti-markets or anti-capitalism. But he says, depressions are bad things, and that they're bad for capitalism if we don't intervene to fix them.
  • Paul says the worst problem in the economy is the debt because we're wasting all of our money paying off the debt.
  • Krugman says trying austerity to cut the debt only makes the debt worse.
In the end, it was mainly two guys who were talking so far past each other, there wasn't much of a "debate." Think: Two boxers standing in the far corners of the ring: Nobody lands a blow.

But it was fun!

No comments: