Paul Krugman - New York Times Blog

 September 16, 2013, 8:33 am


 In Front of Their Noses

 Antonio Fatas, like me, is boggled by the OECD's apparent
 inability even to contemplate the possibility that Europe's poor
 economic performance is the result of fiscal austerity.

 At one level, of course, it's perfectly understandable. The OECD
 in general, and Pier Carlo Padoan, in particular, as chief
 economist, were among the biggest and earliest cheerleaders for
 austerity; you can see why they don't want to admit that they
 were in fact cheerleading Europe into disaster.

 Still, it's kind of depressing. What we've just had in the
 eurozone is as close to a natural experiment on fiscal policy as
 you're ever likely to see, and the results overwhelmingly
 support a Keynesian view. You might expect some acknowledgement,
 some revision of views.

 But that's not the way the world works. George Orwell knew all
 about it:

   The point is that we are all capable of believing things
   which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally
   proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show
   that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to
   carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only
   check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps
   up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield … To
   see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant
   struggle.

 And not many influential people are into that kind of struggle.

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... Freedom's just another word for nothing left to eat.->Republican Version.
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