A VOICE HAS BEEN SOUNDING! Krugman has heard that same odd chatter about this great economy

FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2006

A VOICE HAS BEEN SOUNDING: All around him, Paul Krugman has heard that voice sounding too—the same strange voice we’ve recorded this week. In this morning’s Times, he records a form of the odd conversation we’ve discussed for the past two days. Here’s how he starts his column:

KRUGMAN (7/14/06): I'd like to say that there's a real dialogue taking place about the state of the U.S. economy, but the discussion leaves a lot to be desired. In general, the conversation sounds like this:

Bush supporter: ''Why doesn't President Bush get credit for a great economy? I blame liberal media bias.''

Informed economist: ''But it's not a great economy for most Americans. Many families are actually losing ground, and only a very few affluent people are doing really well.''

Bush supporter: ''Why doesn't President Bush get credit for a great economy? I blame liberal media bias.”

This conversation differs slightly from the one we’ve recorded. In Krugman’s variant, “Bush supporters” blame the public’s weird negativity on that ol’ debbil, media bias. By way of contrast, we have described Bush supporters (Jack Welch) and millionaire pundits (Chris Matthews) blaming the public’s negativity on something a little bit different. Why do voters rate the economy low? They have the economy confused with Iraq, Welch and Matthews told us on Wednesday (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/13/06). Meanwhile, mainstream reporter (for example, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of Krugman’s own Times) have also seemed completely puzzled by the public’s negative outlook. Why doesn’t Bush get credit for a great economy? Stolberg pretty much couldn’t guess (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/12/06).