Paul Krugman Blasts Our Response to Virus as 'Worst in the World,' but He Proves Again His Talent for Always Being Wrong

By Nick Arama | 6:00 PM on March 29, 2020

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Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman speaks during a press conference at the World Capital Markets Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. Aggressive stimulus spending by governments helped the world avoid a second Great Depression but full economic recovery will take two years or more, Krugman said Monday. (AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin)

At a time of pandemic, with a lot of things feeling kind of up in the air and not really knowing how things might shake out, it’s good to know that there are certain principles of life that we can always fall back on.

One of the most basic is that Paul Krugman is always wrong.

So when he says worry, take cheer, dear readers, because that means recovery must be on the horizon.

Here he is being wrong, once again, claiming our response is the worst in the world, because Orange Man Bad.

America's response to the coronavirus is the worst in the world, which is shocking and has a lot to do with a leader who is completely unfit, temperamentally and intellectually, for the job 1/ pic.twitter.com/sGZuFUukgr

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 29, 2020

Of course, it’s also because we’re just the worst in general, according to Krugman.

On the other hand, in some ways it’s a continuation of our long-term terrible health performance, with life expectancy lagging ever farther behind other advanced countries even before the pandemic 2/ pic.twitter.com/cN1rKELd7b

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 29, 2020

The thing is, there really is a sort of uniquely American way of death, rooted in extreme inequality, a weak social safety net, anti-intellectualism, tendency to blame all problems on The Other, etc. And now it’s being laid bare for all to see 3/

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 29, 2020

Imagine having such a twisted view of America, which has always been a beacon of exceptionalism to the rest of the world, but not to this character?

First, of course, what is he missing? That we have a greater population than most of the countries in question, except China, whose figures can’t be believed and are doubtless far more than ours in terms of cases and already are in terms of deaths. But that would require honesty on the part of Krugman to acknowledge that.

Second, we aren’t anywhere close to the worst in deaths, we are actually far below many of the others in terms of deaths and have one of the lower mortality rates, closer to South Korea. Italy has been around 10 percent, whereas we are at 1.6 percent.

Third, does this economist even understand per capita? Why does this need to be explained? We are at 6.3 per million, again lower than many of the other countries in deaths per million.