About That Nobel Prize In Economics...

I've spent a fair amount of time over the past few days marvelling at the mixture of silliness and stupidity eminating from Little Matty's fill-in bloggers. However, it's always important to remember that no matter how silly, or how stupid, those knobs are, there is really only one Little Matty:

Thinking Outside The Currency Peg Box

You can’t talk China and the economy without talking about the exchange rate issue. And thinking about it has got me pondering some questions. For example, insofar as the Chinese want to insist on pegging their currency why do they have to do it in this way? My understanding is that the peg doesn’t just operate automatically. It needs to be defended with a combination of capital controls and active measures. Specifically, the Chinese government spends a ton of money every year buying up U.S. financial assets. But couldn’t they just buy something else? They could order planes from Boeing and sink them into the ocean—that would accomplish everything the Chinese want to accomplish, but also create jobs.

Of course they’d look a bit silly in the eyes of the world if they did that. But what if they held a lottery and gave the winning families all expenses paid vacations to the United States? People would enjoy that, it seems to me. And wouldn’t it work just as well in terms of maintaining the competitiveness of Chinese exports?

I can only assume he's pondering a new career as a comedy writer, although the vast majority of his commenters seem to have missed the humor.

Note: Remember, John Podesta pays him for this sort of stuff.

Comments

[richard mcenroe]

I figger he's about three posts away from "Let them eat cake."

[Wm T Sherman]

He's traveling. You know how stressful that can be. All the food is strange and he gets jostled in crowds; "Keep your distance!" is ignored or met with amused glances, no matter how many times he cries it out.

[Eric Blair]

I'm still continually amazed at what people get paid for these days.

[pre-skool]

Square peg, round hole.

[PDS]

Dennis:

I think you may have the kid rattled. Now he's just babbling. Or found some really bad weed.

[Simon]

Kid doesn't know the difference between Perfect Competition and Monopoly.

Kid doesn't know the difference between consumption and saving.

[Texasyank]

The only parallel I can think of is an episode of M*A*S*H (I know, I know), in which the 4077 is asked to contribute to the blood drive. The only holdout, of course, is Major Burns.

Major Burns: "I think at least one of us should keep a full tank."

Hawkeye (to Col. Potter): "Now why didn't I think of that?"

Col. Potter: "Because you're not an idiot."

[aelfheld]

Drugs are bad, m'kay.

[Tim Worstall]

Good Lord, that is dumb....even considering the source.

[Don Brouhaha]

It explains a lot about a certain kind of mindset. Even in socialist economies, they are not too eager to simply and openly destroy capital (think Cash for Clunkers). And that is exactly what Yglesias is thinking. "Let's just destroy capital and that will achieve a balance".

Baloney comes cheap with this people, no?