FUN WITH LUSKIN….Jesse points out today that Donald Luskin doesn’t know anything about economics or even simple arithmetic. I guess that’s not really news, but it’s remarkable that Luskin keeps getting stupider over time. Here is Luskin complaining about the future total value of Social Security payments:
If payrolls are $295.5 trillion and the deficit is $10.4 trillion, that means Social Security?s anticipated payments to the infinite-horizon must, by definition, be $305.9 trillion….
Luskin is telling us that total Social Security payments will be higher than total payroll. This is a powerful mind at work.
Brad DeLong now calls Luskin “the stupidest man alive.” Personally, though, I think this is unfair to stupid men. Luskin is in a class by himself.
And Brad is right to wonder, yet again, why National Review continues to print his stuff. It’s one thing to employ economic writers who have conservative views, but it’s another to employ economic writers who plainly have no clue what they’re talking about. Don’t they have any self respect left at all?
