New York Times columnist Paul Krugman blamed recent dips in the stock market and U.S. economy on President Trump’s response to a nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus.
“America’s catastrophically inadequate response to the coronavirus can be attributed largely to bad short-term decisions by one man,” Krugman wrote Monday. “At every stage, Donald Trump minimized the threat and blocked helpful action because he wanted to look good for the next news cycle or two, ignoring and intimidating anyone who tried to give him good advice.”
Krugman repeated a claim made recently by Trump’s critics that the president “disbanded the National Security Council’s pandemic response team in 2018,” an action an NSC official denied ever happened.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist lamented there were now only two “potential loci of intelligent economic policymaking left in Washington”: the Federal Reserve and Democratic congressional leadership.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell slashed interest rates Sunday to nearly zero amid fears the U.S. economy could severely slow with businesses feeling the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Under Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, the House over the weekend passed an economic relief bill, which Krugman called “still clearly inadequate.”
“Democrats set the shape of the bill, even as Trump was proposing the grandiose notion of a payroll tax holiday, which has been panned even by conservative economists,” Krugman wrote.
During a press conference Monday, Trump said the U.S. economy “may be” heading toward a recession.
In a tweet Monday, Krugman predicted such an event would doom the president’s legacy in the White House.
“Economists, myself included, often make a point of saying that the stock market is not the economy, which it isn’t,” he said. “It *is*, however, pretty much the Trump presidency. Take away his magic talisman and there’s nothing left.”
Economists, myself included, often make a point of saying that the stock market is not the economy, which it isn’t. It *is*, however, pretty much the Trump presidency. Take away his magic talisman and there’s nothing left pic.twitter.com/8SbukjL6Jk
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 16, 2020
