Writing on his New York Times blog last last night, Nobel laureate, Obama critic, Princeton economist and card-carrying Keynesian Paul Krugman reacted angrily to the controversial decision by Standard and Poor’s (S&P) to downgrade the United States’ top-notch triple-A credit rating for the first time in history.
Professor Krugman wrote:
On one hand, there is a case to be made that the madness of the right has made America a fundamentally unsound nation. And yes, it is the madness of the right: if not for the extremism of anti-tax Republicans, we would have no trouble reaching an agreement that would ensure long-run solvency.
On the other hand, it’s hard to think of anyone less qualified to pass judgment on America than the rating agencies. The people who rated subprime-backed securities are now declaring that they are the judges of fiscal policy? Really?
Just to make it perfect, it turns out that S&P got the math wrong by $2 trillion, and after much discussion conceded the point — then went ahead with the downgrade.
. . . In short, S&P is just making stuff up — and after the mortgage debacle, they really don’t have that right.
You can read the full blogpost here.
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