Paul Krugman

So, about that fiscal crisis – the one that would, any day now, turn us into Greece. Greece, I tell you: Never mind.

Ten years ago, America invaded Iraq; somehow, our political class decided that we should respond to a terrorist attack by making war on a regime that, however vile, had nothing to do with that attack.

The State of the Union address was not, I'm sorry to say, very interesting. True, the president offered many good ideas. But we already know that almost none of those ideas will make it past a hostile House of Representatives.

Like many advocates of financial reform, I was a bit disappointed in the bill that finally emerged. Dodd-Frank gave regulators the power to rein in many financial excesses; but it was and is less clear that future regulators will use that power. As history shows, the financial industry's wealth and influence can all too easily turn those who are supposed to serve as watchdogs into lap dogs instead.

President Barack Obama's second inaugural address offered a lot for progressives to like. There was the spirited defense of gay rights; there was the equally spirited defense of the role of government, and, in particular, of the safety net provided by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

SAN DIEGO – It's that time again: the annual meeting of the American Economic Association and affiliates, a sort of medieval fair that serves as a marketplace for bodies (newly minted Ph.D.s in search of jobs), books and ideas.

The centrist fantasy of a Grand Bargain on the budget never had a chance. Even if some kind of bargain had supposedly been reached, key players would soon have reneged on the deal – probably the next time a Republican occupied the White House.

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, has a reputation as a good guy, a man who supports worthy causes. And he presumably thought he would add to that reputation when he posted an open letter urging his employees to promote fiscal bipartisanship by writing "Come together" on coffee cups.

The great bulk of the economic commentary you read in the papers is focused on the short run: the effects of the "fiscal cliff" on U.S. recovery, the stresses on the euro, Japan's latest attempt to break out of deflation. This focus is understandable, since one global depression can ruin your whole day. But our current travails will eventually end. What do we know about the prospects for long-run prosperity?

Back in the 1950s three social psychologists joined a cult that was predicting the imminent end of the world. Their purpose was to observe the cultists' response when the world did not, in fact, end on schedule.

A few years back, there was a boom in poker television – shows in which you got to watch the betting and bluffing of expert card players. Since then, however, viewers seem to have lost interest. But I have a suggestion: Instead of featuring poker experts, why not have a show featuring poker incompetents – people who fold when they have a strong hand or don't know how to quit while they're ahead?

We are not having a debt crisis.

The American economy is still, by most measures, deeply depressed. But corporate profits are at a record high. How is that possible?

In the ongoing battle of the budget, President Barack Obama has done something very cruel. Declaring that this time he won't negotiate with himself, he has refused to lay out a proposal reflecting what he thinks Republicans want. Instead, he has demanded that Republicans themselves say, explicitly, what they want. And guess what: They can't or won't do it.

These are difficult times for the deficit scolds who have dominated policy discussion for almost three years.

Earlier this week, GQ magazine published an interview with Sen. Marco Rubio, whom many consider a contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, in which Rubio was asked how old the Earth is. After declaring, "I'm not a scientist, man," the senator went into desperate evasive action, ending with the declaration that "it's one of the great mysteries."

America's political landscape is infested with many zombie ideas – beliefs about policy that have been repeatedly refuted with evidence and analysis but refuse to die. The most prominent zombie is the insistence that low taxes on rich people are the key to prosperity. But there are others.

To say the obvious: Democrats won an amazing victory. Not only did they hold the White House despite a still-troubled economy, in a year when their Senate majority was supposed to be doomed, they actually added seats.

If President Barack Obama is re-elected, health care coverage will expand dramatically, taxes on the wealthy will go up and Wall Street will face tougher regulation. If Mitt Romney wins instead, health coverage will shrink substantially, taxes on the wealthy will fall to levels not seen in 80 years and financial regulation will be rolled back.

Mitt Romney talks a lot about jobs. But does he have a plan to create any?

Mitt Romney is optimistic about optimism. In fact, it's pretty much all he's got. And that fact should make you very pessimistic about his chances of leading an economic recovery.

If anyone had doubts about the madness that has spread through a large part of the American political spectrum, the reaction to Friday's better-than-expected report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics should have settled the issue. For the immediate response of many on the right – and we're not just talking fringe figures – was to cry conspiracy.

"No. 1," declared Mitt Romney in Wednesday's debate, "pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan." No, they aren't – as Romney's own advisers have conceded in the past, and did again after the debate.

Are you, or is someone you know, a gadget freak? If so, you doubtless know that Wednesday was iPhone 5 day, the day Apple unveiled its latest way for people to avoid actually speaking to or even looking at whoever they're with.

Does anyone remember the American Jobs Act? A year ago President Barack Obama proposed boosting the economy with a combination of tax cuts and spending increases, aimed in particular at sustaining state and local government employment.

Remember Rosie Ruiz? In 1980 she was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon – except it turned out that she hadn't actually run most of the race, that she sneaked onto the course around a mile from the end. Ever since, she has symbolized a particular kind of fraud, in which people claim credit for achieving things they have not, in fact, achieved.

There has been plenty to criticize about President Barack Obama's handling of the economy. Yet the overriding story of the past few years is not Obama's mistakes but the scorched-earth opposition of Republicans, who have done everything they can to get in his way – and who now, having blocked the president's policies, hope to win the White House by claiming that his policies have failed.

A couple of weeks ago the Northeast was in the grip of a severe heat wave. As I write this, however, it's a fairly cool day in New Jersey, considering that it's late July. Weather is like that; it fluctuates.

Once upon a time a rich man named Romney ran for president. He could claim, with considerable justice, that his wealth was well-earned, that he had in fact done a lot to create good jobs for American workers.

So the Supreme Court – defying many expectations – upheld the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. There will, no doubt, be many headlines declaring this a big victory for President Barack Obama, which it is. But the real winners are ordinary Americans – people like you.

Over the past few days, the New York Times has published several terrifying reports about New Jersey's system of halfway houses – privately run adjuncts to the regular system of prisons. The series is a model of investigative reporting, which everyone should read. But it should also be seen in context. The horrors described are part of a broader pattern in which essential functions of government are being both privatized and degraded.

Ever since Greece hit the skids, we've heard a lot about what's wrong with everything Greek. Some of the accusations are true, some are false – but all of them are beside the point.

Oh, wow – another bank bailout, this time in Spain. Who could have predicted that?

What should be done about the economy? Republicans claim to have the answer: slash spending and cut taxes.

"The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity."

One of the characters in the classic 1939 film "Stagecoach" is a banker named Gatewood who lectures his captive audience on the evils of big government, especially bank regulation – "As if we bankers don't know how to run our own banks!" he exclaims.

A few days ago, I read an authoritative-sounding paper in The American Economic Review, one of the leading journals in the field, arguing at length that the nation's high unemployment rate had deep structural roots and wasn't amenable to any quick solution. The author's diagnosis was that the U.S. economy just wasn't flexible enough to cope with rapid technological change. The paper was especially critical of programs like unemployment insurance, which it argued actually hurt workers because they reduced the incentive to adjust.

In Spain, the unemployment rate among workers under 25 is more than 50 percent. In Ireland almost a third of the young are unemployed. Here in America, youth unemployment is "only" 16.5 percent, which is still terrible – but things could be worse.

The good news first: People are finally admitting that austerity measures are not working. Now the bad news: There seems to be little prospect of a near-term course change.

Just how stupid does Mitt Romney think we are? If you've been following his campaign from the beginning, that's a question you have probably asked many times.

So, can we talk about the Paul Ryan phenomenon?