RV thank you for having on what many would consider to be a controversial figure. It is valuable to have people on who have a different view of what many of your interviewees have. With that said, I did not learn much from this as the interview did not dig into any depth on his ideas. As a result we ended up with sound bytes so his ideas come across as scientific fact that have proven without a shadow of a doubt. So, arguing against them is like arguing against...say that gravity exists.

Great interview and great guest. Keep it up.

Listen to the zombies howl! Krugman is a breath of fresh air after all the guys who know how to make money and therefore think they know how the world works, and there is no necessary correlation of skills. Krugman isn't always right, and he admits that, but what he says overall is closer to the real world than a lot of what we hear from pompous traders. Hayek/Friedman has failed all but the very rich. Keynes is looking better every day. Much of what we hear from the right is not thought, but greed and self-interest hidden in bad faith. Thank you for putting this interview up. Judging by all the down-votes, you should have Krugman on once a month. Make the zombies howl.

amusing to hear the chief zombie talking about zombie ideas - someone please had mr krugman a mirror

Many of the comments on this thread lack precision. What exactly are people's arguments for or against some of his statements? While the idea of giving people money right now is not new (Yang argued for this and is now putting his money where his mouth is), he proposes it in light of the current crisis; what are people's views? Or what do people think of his brief discussion of tax cuts as being a blunt instrument that may not help those who really need the help? I think this thread would be more useful if people focused more specifically on what he said and commented on that.

So not sure i believe half of this.

I'd rather listen to Woods and Murphy on Contra Krugman. Pass.

Krugman just said "climate denial....existential, putting the future of civilization on the line" what a complete and utter exaggeration. I thought he was meant to be smart; that's a political/ideological rant. Stopped watching him right there and suggest he read "Energy for Future Presidents: The Science Behind The Headlines" for a considered and fairly balanced opinion by independents. TLDR of the book: Invest in safe modular nuclear - this can be done now as part of infrastructure investment, either that or go back to the stone age.

So governments should never 'tighten their belts'? Never?

Economists work in a vacuum.

OMG, I refuse to watch this. Why the hell is Real Vision giving Krugman yet another platform to spew his garbage??? Ugh! I thought RV was committed to fighting Keynesian BS.. WTH!?

If I was him, I would apologize for my bad calls and would be very humble. Economy is very very complex and no system is going to work perfectly. He thinks like CBs, no common sense.

Except that Paul Krugman in 1998 said that by 2005, it would become clear that the Internet's effect on the economy is no greater than the fax machine's. Still trying to promote his book.

After 15 min of boring non practical advise for his own political agenda I went to the last 4 minutes - honestly, his Nobel price and PhD are in serious question here... I have learned 0 with this interview - I d rather listen to a NY street vendor of hot dogs what he has to say about the loves of 99%

Here's hoping the guests political ideals get quarantined for eternity.

What would be infinitely more interesting is to have a showdown between Paul Krugman and Robert Murphy. No holds barred. Of course Paul Krugman wouldn't agree to that but Paul....all I would say to you is iron sharpens iron. If you are the intellectual you claim to be you will eat Bob"s lunch. Besides Bob is a pacifist so you have nothing to worry about :-) Join us on the Contra Cruise - Get this through your head - we don't hate you, we disagree with you. Everything isn't political.

Please do not waste our time inviting neo-keynesian academic terrorists like Krugman.

I'm thankful RV did this. I found some of his ideas reasonable if not very specific. One objection to the title. One Way To demonize those you disagree with is to call their ideas zombies

Really trying to extract meaningful information from this interview and I can’t figure out if it’s because I don’t understand Krugman or because this was a recap of his book...

I applaud realvision in their ability to hear all angles of perspective, even if I lose 44 minutes of my life to this davos puppet.

(As the interviewer for this segment, I feel compelled to help those in the RV audience interested in upping their game and educate themselves on key elements of basic economics. To that end, here are Mr. Krugman's posted twitter comments for those who might be interested.) Some wonky thoughts on economic policy in a time of pandemic. A number of people have been saying similar things, but I thought it might be useful to put them in a sort of standard, Econ 101 framework — namely, aggregate supply and aggregate demand. AS-AD posits an upward-sloping relationship between output/employment and inflation — that's aggregate supply — and a downward-sloping relationship from the demand side. Yes, I know there are lots of criticisms of this framework, but I think it's good enough for my point. So here's the picture as I see it. Covid-19 is a major adverse shock to both the supply side and the demand side, with the demand-side shock apparently larger — deflationary pressure seems to outweigh any inflation from disrupted supply. (note: as I am unable to post the chart, I invite you to view it here: https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1241690862448529408 The horizontal dotted line is target inflation (I don't think this matters much — raising the inflation target wouldn't do much right now). What the figure shows is that much of the job loss we're facing can be attributed to the supply shock. And here's the thing: we can't and shouldn't try to offset that supply shock, which is the result of sick people and those in nonessential businesses staying home, as they should. What we should try to prevent are only the additional job losses driven by falling demand. The point is that only part of what we're facing is a conventional recession, which can be offset by fiscal and monetary policy. The rest of it is more like a natural disaster, where the government's role is to help families avoid economic hardship, not put them back to work. What we're hearing about the Senate bill, however, is that it consists almost entirely of stimulus — poorly designed stimulus — and goes out of its way to avoid alleviating hardship. No expansion of unemployment benefits, no additional sick leave ... Even the cash grants are designed so that those who need them most don't get the full amount, and many wouldn't get anything. The reflex of cruelty to those in need means that what we seem to be getting simply fails to address the major problem.

Krugman is a partisan tool. Absolutely no practical value gained from listening by anyone seeking useful investment ideas.

Last trade idea video was in January “sigh”

personal favorite line (paraphrased for pomposity): Q What professional view do you hold that is most controversial? A My groundbreaking theories were radical at the time, but since they have become mainstream, I am now quite boring.

Great Comments! Please forward them to Professor Krugman for self-reflection and reply.

What is the difference between theory and practice? In theory, there is no difference... This man's ideology has made him blind.

Vince, Vince, Vince, throwing only soft balls, nothing high and tight. I get to within six minutes of the end and turned it off. Nothing to see/hear here. Why do these effete east coast, NYC (masters of the universe) seem to often come across as such smarmy, arrogant pseudo-truthers. This is coming from a flyover “zombie”. What a boringly binary thinker (left IE. those in the know versus the troglodytes on right) again proving to me what an ornament a phd is. Auntie Janet Yellen said there would never be another financial crisis in our life times. These people cannot be taken seriously. Herr Doktor Author Fleck err, ummm, Crudman please seek out a position in President’s Biden’s cabinet. Walk the walk instead of talk the talk. Perhaps Minister of Light and Propaganda might be available. Just a couple of old white guys (you and Joe) in the party of inclusion where multiculturalism is your strength. Ha Ha Ha! Does this guy ever write or speak in other than the NYC echo chamber without much biodiversity? My time would have been better spent watching reruns of Jerry Springer, Morri Povich, or even the Kardashians. Jeesh! Better call Snake Plisken to help you get out of the city, looks like it’s getting real in the Apple. Wait your government overlords will be there to solve all of the problems.

Poor questions and poorer answers.

I want to know, who gave him PHD, and how the hell he got Nobel prize????if so many people dislike him, please don’t bring him back. WE DO NOT WANT HIS OPINION.

Please I did not renew my membership to listen to Krugman...Please no more...

I try very hard to listen to all points of view on economic issues as a way of enhancing my own investing skills. Although I may not agree with someone, I usually find something of value in their views and discussions that I can add to my own knowledge base. However, I was disappointed in Mr. Krugman’s lack of articulation of his views on what he called Zombie ideas, and there was little pushback for additional explanation by the interviewer. At the same time, Mr. Krugman’s obvious political bias detracts from his economic discussions. Overall, I expected much more from this interview.

Gad ... another Gretta follower instead of a data follower :(

I guess at this point we either go MMT or have a complete collapse... What other options are there? Maybe a collapse and a reset would be better in the longer term but politically MMT is better for Trump. Bush and Obama faced the same question 11 year ago but this time is even worse. Seems like a perfect storm of epic debt bubbles being burst by the Coronavirus virus buckshot paired with a dysfunctional sickcare system.

Interesting to read the comments and have evidence of people's inability to listen to two sides of an argument without clutching their pearls.

Folks, as always, please keep it civil. Whether we like Paul or not doesn't really matter. What matters is that you keep your eyes and ears open and filter out through your own awareness what makes sense and what not.

No new piercing insight, but also no pretense or fear mongering. I enjoyed it. I suspect most of the raters didn't watch more than 5 minutes because they are Republicans or Libertarians and have already decided that they (wrongly) knew what Krugman would say - which turns out isn't that radical.

Thank you for this interview. I needed reinforcement not to sell my gold and gold stocks!

Hey Raoul and Julien will be behind a paywall now. But you can have Krugman for free!!

Really impressed you guys got him on!

"Temporarily" nationalize lol

OK. Not the greatest interview. Most disappointing is the commentary in this thread. Way too ZeroHedge-ian for me. I expected more from subscribers to this site. My bad.

Enjoyed the interview even though I dont agree with a lot of his economic views. I'm happy that at the very least I heard him out on what he has to say before denying him a chance for him to say it. I dont think the inflation arguement will happen due to technology and demographics I still think there needs to be reasonable fiscal governance and responsibility so as to not erode the trust of a soft currency. Granted, government and large institutional wealth transfer works differently than consumers wealth transfer. Listening to this interview and looking back at the comments made, I think It would be wise to quote someone much smarter than me "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." So I thanks Vincent for bringing Paul on RV.

"Fiat money is backed by men with guns" - Paul Krugman Buy Bitcoin!

Didn't ask enough insightful questions, you just let him spew his ideology without any pushback. What about fundamental issue with the economy due to stuff like reliance on global supply chains and the US being propped up only whilst the dollar remains as the reserve currency,

If I wanted to hear liberal politics I'd turn on CNN. Focus on the market and economics Realvision. First time I've seen a video with more thumbs down than up and for good reason.

Who is a real zombie??? Is this a self-deprecating joke?

The Biden Administration will fix The Republicans and The Germans.

I rarely comment and when I do I make a conscientious effort to make it constructive. The most positive recommendation I can make is to please not have him on again. Despite his credentials there is very low signal to noise here--likely a function of the very high embedded political noise. RV is much higher quality than this.

Sorry RV, bad idea with Pedo guy. He is trying to protect his personal income

Technically what he said was accurate, but overall intellectually dishonest. Reeked of Ellsworth Tooey.

Seriously?

Nice to hear non-neoconservative views here on Real Vision once in a while

I wanted to watch this because I am trying to stay open but when he said the world is awash in savings, I had to turn away. A very small percentage of the world is awash in savings, the rest have no savings and all of us are living in a fraudulent based economy of over priced assets due to false concepts about debt and money printing. Real wages have not gone up in decades and our kids cannot afford to pay their school loans, buy a home or invest in the stock market and you want to continue printing to increase debt and asset prices further? The few people that are on the sidelines saving their money realized in 08, the stock market, real estate, bubble priced assets and our economy is a dangerous casino where you will eventually lose your money. Paul, you want to further this obscenity because you cannot admit you are wrong?

"Krugman is the intellectual & physiological poster child for fiat money: An utterly vacuous slave to authority promoted as an intellectual for regurgitating Keynes' idiotic fake econ; Krugman thought the internet would fail because normal people have nothing to say. He thinks Bitcoin will fail because normal people don't deserve a money they control. In his ideal world, peasants shut up, read his column & use inflationary government monopoly money. Krugman has been at the cutting edge of not understanding the economics of new technology since 1998. Krugman cannot see that the problem Bitcoin solves is Krugman. Unlike every other form of money, even gold, Bitcoin is completely immune to the high time preference whims of Keynesians like him. Valuing Bitcoin is hard because it's priceless, not valueless" - Saifedean Ammous These charlatans won't get us again. #BTC

"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in 'Metcalfe's law'–which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants–becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's." - Paul Krugman

Thank God for the X1.5 speed setting! Krugman has a sliver of my respect, he his not shrouding the origin of his views. It is sad that what little value added comments he presented, on the V vs U recovery, are poisoned by his lack of balance. Honesty about motives, Paul thank you for not hiding yours!

A way overpaid BUFFOON!!!!

Lol. Very bias and not curious. Clearly enamored by current democratic establishment and not thinking deeply. Krugman peaked long ago....

I don't ever want to see or hear from Krugman

He is correct on one thing. United stock holders should get dilluted. Other than that he sounds more like a CCP economist than a free world one.

I was willing to entertain this guy out of curiosity. but to be honest it was waste of time. He's defiantly an intellectual who like to use strawmen in favor of arguments. Not the best aurator either. kind of a nasally pip squeek.

Please do not insult our basic intelligence and common sense by this useful discard. Seriously, it negates and destroys all the wisdom we have acquired from RV other guests. Disappointed.

Political Hack!

While I disagree with Dr.Krugman (and hate his love of pelosi who is just as bad as trump imo) I love that Real Vision is able to bring on someone who so much of the community here really hates. The amount of negativity in the comments section means we really are getting a diverse range of opinions, which many financial media outlets fail to accomplish. Great work guys!

Really appreciated this video even though I don't agree with much of what was presented here. Thanks, RealVision, for presenting this side of what's going on.

I don't have an issue, per se, with Krugman coming on here for an interview. I don't want RV to become an echo chamber. My issue is more that this was a simplistic and softball interview. If the interviewer would have actually pushed him to drill down into the nuances and technical reasons for his view I would have gotten some value out of this.

You should bring on Nassim Nicholas Taleb, he’ll have fun with this one.

Seriously?!!

Please add a FREE year's subscription to every viewer of this video. This guy is not worth our time he is a total IYI (intellectual yet idiot).

Holy Shit...... When will we have a Martian Attack?

RV deleted comment stating this guy is exactly what he is. A Keynesian puppet and an absolute fraud. Read Saifedean Ammous. Free yourselves from charlatans like this one. Raoul, shame on you. A contrarian view can be healthy but we want quality WTs in our SWOTs, not just charlatans who have been supporting a system of ruin for over a decade.

Krugman sounds almost clueless, an ideologue, clinging to a dying Keynesian economic model, e.g., "we live in a world awash in savings with nowhere to go"? I give credit to RV for airing a wide diversity of views, so no problem there. However, Krugman is clearly a political shill, espousing many baseless views to support his left-wing constiuents.

Thought Krugman's "computer was compromised"....?

RV did a great job getting this interview, you guys are bringing us an excellent range of views from really interesting sources. I've subscribed for a while now and the service keeps improving all the time; something I can't say about other services. Appreciate all the daily interviews too...

Disappointing

Not my cup of tea.

You can't help but question the judgement of RV to have Krugman in one of their videos.

I would appreciate seeing an interview with Richard Duncan and Steve Keen.

Lots of theories claimed as facts w/o proof. Wasn't at all surprised to hear him say he believes the Fed should take over publicly traded business during times like this. Lost all credibility when he stated one of his idols is Nancy Pelosi. Don't mind the wide range of views on RV. Just hope I'm not paying too much of my dues to someone like this.

Saw the interview on the home page and I had to check to see if it was April 1st. Unfortunately it wasn't. One positive for Real Vision this should get more visitors to migrate to a subscription level. I'm glad I have the Plus level.

I couldn't. I tried. I really did. But I couldn't make it. Sorry.

Thnks RV for bringing it. 🙏🙏🙏 It‘s important to get different views so we are not tunneled in whats gonna happen. But personally, he is the system!!! And i would expect to hear a clear message what can be done to chance the world. And nothing. Eat cakes and keep kicking the can down the road.

It is my lay understanding that Keynes believed in deficit spending in time of need, but the deficits must be paid back in times of surplus. There is nothing wrong with this theory, except politicians never pay back the deficits. They make sure there will never be a surplus. In order to keep economics safe, economist had to drop the word political from the original term Political Economics. In this manner Keynes' theory can be kept pure from those pesky politicians. Deficit spending worked fairly well while we were under the constrains of the gold standard. But when President Nixon eliminated the dollar convertibility into gold - guns and butter – politicians from both parties joyfully took complete control of taxing less and spending more. It seems to me that most of the unfavorable comments below are a reaction to reality of politics vis-a-vis the theories of economics. This leads to statements like "of course you can have deficit spending in times of crisis" by Professor Krugman followed by the thought OMG we are always in a time of crisis and will never pay back the deficit by the listener. I gave this presentation a thumbs up as a presentation of economic theory. I am fairly sure these policies will be passed by Congress and we will see deficits soaring like eagles around the world. Since some of these funds will go directly to the individuals the money will be spent unlike QEs. This should eventually drive up inflation, so I reinstated my gold hedge and a few stocks. I have great faith that politicians around the world will continue to work diligently night and day to do destroy the value of fiat currencies. If I were younger, I would probably buy some Bitcoins. Unfortunately you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I leave Bitcoins to you younger folks. DLS

Krugman wants to make everyone a millionaire. The problem might be with what that million is really worth.

The current central banking system is working well??? Ha Ha

Sounds like hes the zombie from were i stand...

Great to hear from Krugman, I dont agree with him though. But why are there no critical question? Why dont interviewer ask about Fiat problem with extreme deficits coming, future inflation etc... Come on.

first time i've ever seen 2x thumbs down and RV crowd is usually very fair.

This interview actually made me laugh loud out, how funny is this RV. Great to also have funny stuff on this channel! Congratulations and thank you Vincent for sacrificing your precious time.

New book, how original, did he see Tom Woods/Robert Murphy conversation with a zombie? " I am all for a Green New Deal, nobody knows quite what Green New Deal means, and that's a great thing' Thank you Mr Krugman, you will stay on the shelf I put you at first, the knowitall & anointed shelf.

This is the nutjob who wishes people believe the aliens would attack. He thinks people panicking is good for the economy, he probably love corona.

Ha! As soon as I saw this video I thought this is going to get a very negative vote from the crowd on RVT. Actually I see a few upvoted the video and I wonder if thats because they approve his ideas or they are just giving a thumbs up to actually being to listen to Krugman at all. I don't know what his Nobel was for but sometimes these things just get given for stage reasons. As to the current government handouts I neither agree with tax cuts or check handouts. Feels they are not addressing the biggest threats but thats a huge topic. There is something about the man that is dislikable.... Really couldn't watch the whole video......

Did someone send Paul Krugman the Fax about Bitcoin being the new Standard soon?

Raoul, wtf is this?

Krugman hurls polemic after polemic laced with outlandish statements that are demonstrably false. He does not practice civil discourse. Will RV be upset with its members should there be a deluge of negative feedback? On a related note, there are some astonishing ironies within that he won't and can't recognize.

I have no problem with Real Vision bringing a wide variety of guests. Even ones I disagree with. In fact, I encourage it. The problem is that Krugman is so intellectually dishonest and assumes the worst out of everyone that he is impossible to take seriously.

Krugman is a hack.

Listening to him is a complete waste of time...I gave up after a while...he is so dumb and also his track record is train wreck...one of those people we shld not even give airtime...what he says is just noise!

Paul Krugman is a political hack economist. I can't get anything of value out of his ideas other than it concerns me that he has any influence. He also is so sure of himself. And of course he knows for sure that man is responsible for climate change. Economists know all.

A friend of my dad's had a mother in-law that hated him. She used to say of her daughter, "Never before had someone stooped so low and came up with so little." As I finished reading the Krugman transcript that thought came to my mind for some reason.

Only a few minutes in. Does the interviewer ever ask Krugman if they got to the bottom of the hacker who used his IP address for child pornography access?

Paul Krugman's report card is a Total Train Wreck as an Economic Academic. Research his predictions! Video getting very poor ratings..... Worst RV video and guest as ratings are showing.... Political hack not a guest worthy of this platform. Nothing personal.... just stating the obvious!

I really hope Paul reads these comments and reflects on them.

Total lack of common sense......an academic disaster.....enough said.

Paul Krugman is a part of CBs. We are here because of people like him. I’m absolutely sure as a person, he is a great guy to drink with. As far as his economic views, I totally disagree with him 100%. If I was him, I would return Noble prize and PHD to Princeton. Don’t believe me , review his report card on google, his predictions, etc. You want make $$$$, go opposite to Paul’s view.

More Krugman, please! We need a cathartic shithead punching bag in troubled times like these!

He’s such a slimy person. You can listen how he immediately assumes the worst intentions of republicans and Germans and how he must be right (even though his track record is garbage). Scumbag.

Hard pass

Pretty disappointed real vision brought on Paul krugman. He has a long history of being very wrong. I will skip this one.

Always good to have a contrary indicator to reality. Please have him on more often I feel like it will help with timing.

Trump is not the Neo Liberal he just got lucky, or samrt enough to promised something the disenfranchised wanted , not that he will deliver .Joe Biden is the Neo Liberal that's why is OK to publicly support Biden and not Trump

Nothing like having some one speaking in the background when you in quarantine alone at home ....

I’d rather hear many different ideas and points of view and come to my own conclusions than bounce around in the same echo chamber. Much appreciated. Thank you.

As a Younger person, I used to like Paul K but since he has gone pure politics I can't take him seriously anymore. I also think Taleb's attacks have greatly diminished the perceived quality of Mr Krugman. ill read the transcript! Thanks, RV for making that available!

"The two biggest obstacles to sane economic policy right now are the republican party of the US and the entire nation of Germany" - These insights brought us by a man who has never (and could never) work anywhere but in an ivory tower.

Thoughts on a boatload of deficit spending? “No problem.” Huh? What movie is he living in??

Krugman on deficit spending by Western governments: "...we're all able to borrow money at extremely low interest rates, there's no hint of a problem..." Ahhhh, Repo anyone? Banks are lacking in confidence to lend to each other. Rates are being lowered as credit risks are rising. Central banks are losing control of short end rates. Keynesian economics is disintegrating (speaking of zombie ideas). The clock's ticking until the time people lose confidence in public markets / governments en masse. Do fear the Repo...

Thank you RV. Now I remember why I dislike Krugman so much.

Thanks RVTV for giving us insights into how the 'elites' think. I didn't realise Bernanke had done such a great job!

Hahahahahahaha. I haven’t even listened yet and I can’t wait to read the comments.