-Donald Trump has tweeted
negatively about you,
but you're in excellent company.
But one of the things was he -
you predicted on election nigh
a recession, which has not
come to pass.
And that is what he keeps
hammering home.
-Yeah. I retracted that
three days later.
-Three days later.
-Three days after the election
saying, "Okay, I did
what you're not supposed to do
which was I let --
Motivated reasoning."
I said, "A terrible thing ha
just happened," which did,
but I let myself indulge mysel
by saying,
"It's going to lead to immediate
bad results on all fronts.
Then three days later, I said,
"You know, actually Trump
is probably going to increas
the budget deficit
and the budget deficit
is probably gonna give
the economy a bit of a jolt.
So it's actually --
We're not gonna have a recession
right away
and Trump might actually preside
over somewhat faster growth.
So, yeah, I had a bad --
I much regret
that election-night statement,
but, you know, I admitted
I was wrong
and tried to learn from it
-I think when the Presiden
is wrong, he admits it, too.
I think that's what
you guys have in common.
-Oh, yeah, right.
-We always say that's what Trump
and Krugman have in common
They own up to their mistakes.
-Fix that comment
with a Sharpie.
-Hey, I want to talk about this.
Obviously tonight
is the Iowa caucuses.
There's a lot of writing about
how, you know, the Democrats
are putting everything at risk
with very progressive ideas.
Yet you point out
that progressive ideas
are actually very popular.
Will you explain
what the idea is?
It's very popular with
the majority of people.
-Yeah. For the most part,
if you ask people, "Should taxes
on the rich go up?"
Overwhelming support for that.
If you ask people, "Should the
government spend more or les
on Social Security
and Medicare?"
Overwhelming majority say,
"Spend more."
The public is actually kind of
left of center.
I have to admit, it makes me
a little bit nervous that --
Look, one of the things in
"Arguing With Zombies,"
in the book, I talk
about the Republican habit
of portraying anything that yo
try to do
to make life a little bit better
as saying, "Oh,
that's socialism,"
which is ridiculous.
I'm a little bit nervous about
the idea of having somebody say,
"Yeah, it is socialism.
I'm a socialist,"
when he actually isn't.
Bernie Sanders is a social
Democrat, he's left of center,
he's a little bit further left
of center
than others in the party,
but I --
It may be brilliant to just play
right into the Republican
framing of it,
but it might also
be a problem.
-Well, it will be interestin
to see.
Thank you so much
for being here.
It's a delight to have you
-Great.
Thank you.
-That's Paul Krugman, everybody.
