Wrong Focus

Krugman:

Politically, stimulus turns out to be hard to do. But commentators who spread fatalism are part of the problem.

Yeah. Yeah, that's it. The problem is commentators. Not economists. That's it.

Krugman:

Changing the economy’s long-run growth rate is hard. We’ve had almost 25 years of “new growth theory” research, with every possible regression run, looking for the keys to faster growth; my sense is that we’ve basically come up dry.

It's okay when smart economists have nothing at all to offer? That's okay?? (If you are really looking for "the keys to faster growth," you might have a look at the previous post.)

Noah:

Regarding Krugman's argument…just because "New Growth Theory" hasn't found any definitive answers doesn't mean that there aren't any. After all, growth theory is working with terrible data. Countries are not selections from a random sample, and the time series of post-WW2 growth is not very long.

And this one. Cute kid. The first sentence there, okay. We've not found the answer, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. Solid, I like it.

But the next sentence after that had better tell me what you think the answer is. Or what you think the answer might be. Or why somebody else's proposed answer is right, or why their answer is wrong.

Does Noah do that?

No. Instead, Noah expounds on the topic of why there might be an answer even though we have not found it yet.

Really, Noah? It's no wonder you don't have the answer. You're not even looking.