Krugman's take on the economy

i remember reading an interview with krugman in which he said that, prior to doing his nyt column, he more or less lived in his own academic/economic ivory tower but doing the column forced him to look at what's going on in the country in a much broader way and then he started to get angry...

as usual, krugman puts it right out there... he has a remarkable ability to slice right through to the heart of a matter..

[T]wo-thirds of Americans polled by Gallup say that the economy is "only fair" or "poor." And only 33 percent of those polled believe the economy is improving, while 59 percent think it's getting worse.

yet...

According to John Snow, the Treasury secretary, the global economy is in a "sweet spot."

[...]

What's going on? Actually, it's quite simple: Mr. Bush and his party talk only to their base - corporate interests and the religious right - and are oblivious to everyone else's concerns. [...] Corporate interests are doing very well. As a recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, over the last three years profits grew at an annual rate of 14.5 percent after inflation, the fastest growth since World War II.

The story is very different for the great majority of Americans, who live off their wages, not dividends or capital gains, and aren't doing well at all. Over the past three years, wage and salary income grew less than in any other postwar recovery - less than a tenth as fast as profits. But wage-earning Americans aren't part of the base.

just ask any family who's covering two jobs and trying to get by...

But wage-earning Americans aren't part of the base.

like we didn't know that... and krugman makes the same point about bush that i've made dozens of times...

[P]eople sense, correctly, that Mr. Bush doesn't understand their concerns. He was sold on privatization by people who have made their careers in the self-referential, corporate-sponsored world of conservative think tanks. And he himself has no personal experience with the risks that working families face. He's probably never imagined what it would be like to be destitute in his old age, with no guaranteed income.

if I had one question to ask bush it would be this. "Have you ever personally written a check to pay a household utility bill?"

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