Tuesday, August 05, 2003

While you were sleeping.....

....Matthew Hoy was busy Fisking Paul Krugman. Shouldn't you do Matt the courtesy of reading the latest from a charter member of the Krugman Truth Squad? Yes you should.

Update: You see – I was right! Donald Luskin confirms my suspicions by recounting a letter sent to The Conspiracy to keep you Poor and Stupid by Andrew Ortlieb:

"Mr. Krugman's claim is that the spending increase was 'only 10 percent,' which was, '...simply a matter of keeping up with inflation and population.' Regardless of whether the increase is 10% or 13.4%, the base numbers are per capita and in constant 2002-2003 dollars. In other words, inflation and population growth are factored out!"

Luskin responds: “In other words, Krugman's statement gives the false impression that the "only 10 percent" growth was, itself, undertaken to match inflation and population -- yet those considerations had already been included in the very growth rate that Krugman cited. It's a clear case of double counting, designed to minimize the size of California's spending growth in order to make a political point.”

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