Europe beats Krugman

Remember the good old days, when liberals/socialists/Democrats used to use Europe as the example of what we should or should not do?

Recently, as Europe has been moving to the right economically, prominent leftist economists have been moving away from their unbridled adulation of Europe.

In today's Wall Street Journal, columnist James Taranto basically feeds some crow to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman (I never get tired of pointing out how great the Left thinks he is), using nothing more than Krugman's own writing in the New York Times, combined with one of their own stories:

-"There's a problem: conservative politicians, clinging to an out-of-date ideology--and, perhaps, betting (wrongly) that their constituents are relatively well positioned to ride out the storm--are standing in the way of action. No, I'm not talking about Bob Corker, the Senator from Nissan--I mean Tennessee--and his fellow Republicans. . . . I am, instead, talking about Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and her economic officials, who have become the biggest obstacles to a much-needed European rescue plan."--former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, New York Times, Dec. 15, 2008
-"Why is Europe falling short? Poor leadership is part of the story. European banking officials, who completely missed the depth of the crisis, still seem weirdly complacent. And to hear anything in America comparable to the know-nothing diatribes of Germany's finance minister you have to listen to, well, Republicans."--Krugman, New York Times, March 16, 2009
-"The European economy bounced back with unexpected strength in the second quarter, buoying hopes that a worldwide recession was drawing to a close. The sharp improvement from the first quarter underscored just how far Europe and indeed the global economy had come since a harrowing free fall in late 2008. Underlying the strong reading were solid performances in France and Germany, each of whose economies grew slightly in the second quarter, according to government data released Thursday."--news story, New York Times, Aug. 14, 2009

Of course, this is not the first time Krugman has made a bad economic analysis, or said something incredibly stupid.