Paul Krugman is now posting stuff on a nearly daily basis on Substack, and well worth following. Here’s a few of them I found particularly of interest:
The Clean Little Secret of Social Security -It’s a pretty good program, and we can afford it
By popular demand Krugman took this from out behind the paywall. It’s an excellent primer on just how Social Security actually works, very readable, and it addresses some of the more prevalent claims about how sustainable it is.
On a related note is:
Smears, Sadism and Social Security — Why Elon Musk wants to make seniors suffer
You’ve probably seen Musk claiming that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and that millions of dead people are collecting benefits? Besides decimating the staff and closing offices at SSA,
The story so far: On March 12 the Washington Post reported that the Social Security Administration was considering ending phone service for Americans filing retirement or disability claims. The SSA quickly backed off that idea — sort of. The day after the Post report, however, the agency circulated an internal memo — acquired by the newsletter Popular Information— laying out a plan that would be almost equally destructive.
The goal is, if you can’t kill Social Security, make it impossible for people to file claims or get help.
Under this plan, beneficiaries would still be able to call the SSA. But they would have to verify their identity either over the internet or through in-person visits to field offices.
Bear in mind that we’re talking about older and/or disabled Americans, many of whom are unable to access the internet and physically unable to visit SSA offices — which would in any case be overwhelmed by the increased traffic, given that the agency is already facing large staffing cuts. So this would be a move of almost cartoonish cruelty, and a nightmare for millions of Americans.
emphasis added
Why would Musk do this? Krugman speculates:
My guess, instead, is that it’s an ego thing, that Social Security has become to Musk what Canada has become to Donald Trump. Both men at one point said something stupid, something that would have turned them into laughingstocks if there weren’t so much fear in the air. But both men have been unable to let go, doubling down in what amounts to an attempt to redeem their initial foolishness.
Speaking of Stupid…
A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Lose — Especially when you’re running a country
Krugman says something that neither the media nor Democratic leadership is willing to say — yet.
This will, I hope, be a fairly short post. That’s partly because my schedule is really tight at the moment and I don’t have time for detailed analysis. But it’s also because I don’t want too much analysis to clutter up a very simple point: The two most powerful men in America have gone stark raving mad…
...But I don’t see how you can look at recent statements by Donald Trump and Elon Musk without concluding that both men have lost their grip on reality.
News reports still tend to sanewash what our leaders have been saying, and even selected quotations often make them sound more rational than they are. Fortunately, both are addicted to posting on social media, and you really have to read some of their posts to get a full sense of the madness.
Krugman quotes rantings from Trump and Musk that show — in their own words — just how deranged/delusional both men are. You don’t get this from the mainstream media which summarizes and glosses over too much of this stuff.
Krugman does an excellent job of ripping apart media attempts to ‘explain’ calls by Trump to restructure the world financial systems by cutting right to what the media is afraid or unable to acknowledge:
The Emperor’s New Philosophy —Of drunkards, lampposts and economic doctrines
...What got Tooze going were multiple news analyses that tried to portray the vague concept of a “Mar-a-Lago Accord,” an attempt by the U.S. government to restructure the world financial system supposedly to its advantage, as reflecting a serious rethinking of international economic policy. If the plan, or maybe concept of a plan, or whatever doesn’t seem to make sense, that must be because Trump officials are playing some kind of deep game.
But why would you think that? Everything we know about the Trumpists’ approach to economic policy, or policy in general, suggests both that Trump himself has no understanding of economics — that he has prejudices rather than ideas — and that he surrounds himself with people who cater to his prejudices, that as Tooze puts it, the policy visions we’re getting from Trumpland have more in common with
a facelift pandering to the ignorant vanity of an old man than with economic policy as we have hitherto known it.
emphasis added
Bottom line:
My point is that Trump believes many blatantly false things that suit his prejudices. Why imagine that he and his courtiers have sophisticated ideas and a deep strategy when it comes to international economics?
On the surface, Trump’s trade policy looks stupid and destructive. Dig deeper, and you discover that this first impression was completely valid. Trying to pretend otherwise is just misinforming readers.
“Blatantly false things that suit his prejudices” applies to just about anything Trump says.
Krugman posted this while attending a conference in Belgium. It would not surprise me if he was unable to return to this country, given what’s happening with immigration.