The Smithian

February 18th, 2013

…just about everyone except Republican men believes that the lowest-paid workers deserve a raise. And they’re right. We should raise the minimum wage, now.

Paul Krugman, at the New York Times

January 27th, 2013

thesmithian

…in deep red states like Louisiana or Kansas, Republicans are much freer to act on their beliefs—which means moving strongly to comfort the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted. Which brings me back to Mr. Jindal, who declared in his speech that “we are a populist party.” No, you aren’t. You’re a party that holds a large proportion of Americans in contempt. And the public may have figured that out.

Paul Krugman, at the New York Times

November 25th, 2012

thesmithian

Whenever you see some business person…complaining about how he or she can’t find workers with the necessary skills, ask what wage they’re offering. Almost always, it turns out that what said business person really wants is highly (and expensively) educated workers at a manual-labor wage. No wonder they come up short.

Paul Krugman, at the New York Times.

August 3rd, 2012

thesmithian

…the overriding story of the past few years is not Mr. Obama’s mistakes but the scorched-earth opposition of Republicans, who have done everything they can to get in his way—and who now, having blocked the president’s policies, hope to win the White House by claiming that his policies have failed.

Paul Krugman, at the NYT.