Thursday, November 17, 2011

Summary/Analysis 2 - Paul Krugman's Blog

     Professor and Nobel prize winner, Paul Krugman tackles many important worldwide economic issues in his New York Times blog The Conscience of the Liberal. Krugman uses straight up evidence as well as various comparisons to back his view points. He does this in order to make the audience aware of these issues in a factual sense and allow them to assess these problems in comparison to past problems. His audience are people interested in the state of the economy not only in the United States but in other areas around the world.
     Krugman's recent blog entries show his interest in the recession that the United States is currently struggling through. He compares this recession to "the 80s recession, and for that matter like what happened in the 70s" as this recession too is creating a "clockwise spiral” in the unemployment chart he presents. However this recession's chart spiral has been "scrunched as if it’s bouncing off a hard surface at or near zero". Not only does this suggest the economy will continue to struggle as rises in employment rates have been minimum but it also does in a factual way that uses similes to compare this recession to those of the past. He also takes a look at austerity, a policy of deficit cutting and lower spending. He takes an existing article on the subject, critiques it, and adds his own insight as well. He uses a chart of British unemployment rates in the 1900's and again tries to draw comparisons between those unemployment rates and those of the United States currently.

1 comment: