Market Correction

28 April 2007

Comments Editor, Jewish World Review

Dear Editor:

Paul Greenberg appropriately skewers Paul Krugman's "economics" as it infests the New York Times ("The sound of one man weeping," April 27).

Krugman sunk to his nadir, in my view, with his October 20, 2002, New York Times Magazine article on income inequality. Forgetting all that he'd written earlier and so eloquently about how specialization, comparative advantage, and trade increase wealth - about how these processes enlarge the pie - Krugman made the following claim, which he described as "simply a matter of arithmetic": "Although America has higher per capita income than other advanced countries, it turns out that that's mainly because our rich are much richer. And here's a radical thought: if the rich get more, that leaves less for everyone else."

This absurdity isn't economics. It is, like belief in witches, an ancient and preposterous superstition.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University