Earlier today, booming housing numbers were announced. Now, the 50-state (and Washington DC) jobless numbers are out for November and they show a major drop in unemployed. Did Krugman see this reversal of the downturn? Hah! Here he is in his own words less than two weeks ago (My bold):
Nobody thinks that an economy operating somewhere near full employment can inflate its way to higher output. But under depression conditions — which is what we have now — inflation is very much a positive thing.Krugman has no clue on how to recognize a developing upturn, even when it is buddy Fed chairman Ben Bernanke pumping money like crazy to manipulate the economy higher. Wait until this money starts to hit the consumer sector and Krugman will appear even more clueless, since, get this, he has been warning about (hee hee) deflation.
As for the November unemployment numbers, unemployment rates dropped in 43 U.S. states and Washington DC in November from a month earlier, the Labor Department reported. Nationally, the unemployment rate declined to 8.6% last month from 9% in October. The U.S. unemployment rate is now at a 2-1/2 year low.
Some of the improvement in the U.S. unemployment rate, to be sure, is due to 315,00 people leaving the work force over the last four months, but a poll of households also showed that the country saw an increase of 1.28 million jobs over the same period.
Bottom line: The economy continues to trend upward. Keynesians, like Krugman, have been left in the dust with their faulty models.
