Krugman gets a few right

I agreed completely with Paul Krugman's columnd today in which he attacks a proposed settlement between state attorneys general and the mortgage servicing industry. He's right that bankers are being allowed to break the law with impunity. The banking and mortgage industry have been out of control for a while and are able to do things that would cause average people to be thrown in jail or suffer extreme financial consequences. Banks are bailed out and their crimes and lies are ignored.

Krugman has had a few other good insights in recent columns. For example he rightfully questioned the idea that getting more people to go to a college is the solution to our competitiveness. But he is still being reckless with his endless call for more government spending. In one recent column, he says, "The federal government is having no trouble raising money, and the price of that money — the interest rate on federal borrowing — is very low by historical standards." Yeah, just like all the consumers who had no problem borrowing from their home equity lines or credit cards up until the point when they were taken away and they suddenly found themselves deeply underwater in their houses and buried in debt. He does not discuss the incredibly sharp rise in the national debt over the past few years. He mentions the governemnt's "long-run" fiscal problem. I think the crisis is upon us. Waiting any longer to address it seems to me to be incredibly reckless and shortsighted.