Governments do not necessarily act in the national interest, especially when making detailed microeconomic interventions. Instead, they are influenced by interest group pressures. The kinds of interventions that new trade theory suggests can raise national income will typically raise the welfare of small, fortunate groups by large amounts, while imposing costs on larger, more diffuse groups.
Paul KrugmanAmerica's political landscape is infested with many zombie ideas - beliefs about policy that have been repeatedly refuted with evidence and analysis but refuse to die. The most prominent zombie is the insistence that low taxes on rich people are the key to prosperity.
Paul KrugmanWhat Republicans have actually put on the table is almost nothing. All of the rest is just big talk. So how is the president supposed to negotiate with people who say, 'Here's my demands. By the way, I can't give you any specifics. Just make me happy'?
Paul KrugmanThe growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in 'Metcalfe's law'โwhich states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participantsโbecomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's.
Paul KrugmanThe fact is that the two years or so after 9/11 were a terrible time in America โ a time of political exploitation and intimidation, culminating in the deliberate misleading of the nation into the invasion of Iraq. Itโs probably worth pointing out that Iโm not saying anything now that I wasnโt saying in real time back then, when Bush had a sky-high approval rating and any criticism was denounced as treason. And thereโs nothing Iโve done in my life of which Iโm more proud.
Paul Krugman