New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has famously asserted that an invasion of space aliens would be good for the economy. He claims that the additional government spending required by such a disaster would bring us out of our economic slump.
Last week, after the East Coast earthquake, many bloggers thought Krugman had written online that he wished the earthquake damage had been greater, because it would have spurred government spending, with the economy benefiting. It turns out that the online comment was a hoax. Krugman huffed that people have too much time on their hands and are resorting to faking quotes, but many commentators noted that the fake quote wasn’t any different in substance from Krugman’s space-alien scenario.
Which brings us to Gov. Bev Perdue and her appearance on “Morning Joe” this morning. Mike Barnicle asked her if a “dark downside” to the hurricane might be that it would spur job growth, the Krugman thesis in a nutshell. To her credit, she dismissed that notion:
I hadn’t thought of that but obviously there will be some employment as people rebuild and prepare. This morning they said there’s at least 27,000 or 28,000 structures that have an opportunity to be hit by the storm. So, we’ll know by Saturday or Sunday. But all of us want jobs, but this isn’t a way to get them quite frankly.
