What is Paul Krugman smoking, and can I have some?

Here, about the health care reform.

More on Krugman, just in from The Mogambo Guru. Excerpt:

"08/17/09
I think that Paul Krugman is one of those absurd guys that has no idea what in the hell he is talking about and who owes his undeserved prominence to being a real butt-kissing sucker-upper to Alan Greenspan and his Federal Reserve, and now he’s doing the same thing to the laughable Ben Bernanke and his disastrous Federal Reserve, although I will admit that I don’t know why anybody listens to this guy.

I say this with such obvious disrespect because Mr. Krugman is on record has having advised the Bank of Japan to purposely cause inflation, as, “The way to make monetary policy effective is for the central bank to credibly promise to be irresponsible – to make a persuasive case that it will permit inflation to occur, thereby producing the negative real interest rates the economy needs”, although he never actually says where he is going to find guys stupid enough to loan money at negative interest rates, or in what bizarre alternate universe he lives where high inflation in consumer prices, particularly sustained high inflation, is anything other than a total disaster, which is why most of economics is concerned with the problem of preventing inflation while fostering growth!

In fact, he thinks that a central bank trying to reflate a collapsing economy should announce a deliberate plan to raise the level of prices (such as the Consumer Price Index) from current low levels to some dramatically higher value (a so-called “price-level gap”) that it would have theoretically reached if a “moderate” and constant amount of inflation in prices had, in fact, occurred! Gaaahhhh!

To make it more Theater of the Absurd, he then says to keep creating more inflation in prices! Gaaahhhh! This is insane! This is beyond insane!
This would be bad enough coming from just another egghead academic dork from Princeton, but a terrifying quote from Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, shows that he agrees with this with nonsense!..." Read all here

Background: Inflation and the Fall of the Roman Empire

Poll: 57% don't see stimulus working

Poll: 57% don't see stimulus working 17 Aug 2009

Six months after President Obama launched a $787 billion plan to right the nation's economy, a majority of Americans think the avalanche of new federal aid has cost too much and done too little to end the recession. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 57% of adults say the stimulus package is having no impact on the economy or making it worse. Even more --60% --doubt that the stimulus plan will help the economy in the years ahead, and only 18% say it has done anything to help improve their personal situation.

AfPak updates

More of the same nonsensical b/s from the Pope of Hope: Obama: Afghan war secures America
US President Barack Obama says there will be no quick or easy victory over the Taliban, noting that the war in Afghanistan is crucial in protecting Americans from terrorism.

More: Afghan presidential palace attacked

More from ICH and CLG:
Legal battle over British detainees --They have never been charged with an offence. 18 Aug 2009 A human rights organisation has announced the start of legal action against the Government over questions of alleged rendition to Afghanistan. Reprieve will demand the Ministry of Defence gives answers about the treatment of two men arrested by the British in Iraq in 2004 who have since been held at the US detention facility at Bagram air force base in Afghanistan. They have never been charged with an offence, and the periodic review of their status by the US military has been characterised by a US federal judge as falling "well short of what the Supreme Court found inadequate at Guantanamo". Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, said: "These two men have been held in appalling conditions for five years, and the Government chose to do nothing."
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Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time:
What are our servicemen dying for? There are glib answers to that: bringing democracy and development to Afghanistan, supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai in its attempt to establish order in the country, fighting the Taliban and preventing the further spread of radical Islam into Pakistan. http://snipurl.com/qe5i7
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Much Of Afghan Drug Money Going To 'Our Friends':
The Senate report says the United States inadvertently contributed to the resurgent drug trade ... by backing warlords who derived income from the flow of illegal drugs. ... These warlords later traded on their stature as U.S. allies to take senior positions in the new Afghan government. http://snipurl.com/qe5jg
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Notorious warlord returns to Afghanistan to help Karzai:
Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a notorious Afghan warlord accused of allowing the murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of prisoners and then destroying the evidence returned to Afghanistan Sunday night as part of what appears to be a political deal brokered with President Hamid Karzai. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/73809.html
More On "Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum" http://snipurl.com/qe5me
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30 killed in Pakistan attacks: Monday:
Up to 24 militants were reported killed Monday in air strikes and clashes in Pakistan's northwest, where six civilians were also killed by a car bomb at a petrol station, officials said. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/151942/six-civilians-24-militants-killed-in-pakistan
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25 killed in Pakistan violence:
At least 25 people, including four soldiers, were killed in attacks and clashes across Pakistan's restive northwestern region, army and intelligence officials said Saturday. http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/531263/cs/1/
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18 Taliban die in 'revenge' attacks:
The bullet-riddled bodies of 18 Taliban militants apparently killed by furious residents seeking revenge have been found in Pakistan's northwest Swat valley, officials say.
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/18-taliban-die-in-revenge-attacks-20090816-em92.html
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5 Soldiers, 13 Militants Killed in Pakistan:
A suicide bomber rammed his car into a security checkpoint in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley Saturday, killing five soldiers - while eight militants were killed in another part of the valley.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-08-16-voa2.cfm
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What Does Barack Obama Really Want in Afghanistan?
By William Pfaff
There have been eight years in which to capture bin Laden and it's not been done yet, and there seems no reason to think that anything important would change if the thousands of Marines now scheduled for Afghanistan did capture him. What did it change to capture and execute Saddam Hussein in Iraq?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23285.htm
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Winners And Loosers In The American Warfare State
By Sherwood Ross
The big losers are the American taxpayers who are bleeding income, jobs, and quality of life, not just sacrificing family members, on behalf of a runaway war machine. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23287.htm
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More: Notorious warlord returns to Afghanistan to help Karzai

More: 'Good' Pakistani Taliban Leader Vows To Fight US In Afghanistan

More: Afghan Law (courtesy of US-sponsored "democracy"): Husbands Can Deny Wives Food If They Fail To Obey Sex Demands

And more: Dismantling Pakistan, a Quagmire of Imperial Slavery