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NYC's failed storm response has become Mayor Bloomberg's Katrina, Paul Krugman says, accusing...

  • Thursday, December 30, 2010, 6:15 PM ET
    NYC's failed storm response has become Mayor Bloomberg's Katrina, Paul Krugman says, accusing the city's administration of failing to take weather warnings seriously. Krugman may be unaware that some of the slow snow job appears to have been caused by union protests over budget cuts.
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This news story has 25 comments:

  • Can Krugman just keep his value less opinions confined to Economics.
    30 Dec 2010, 06:16 PM Reply Like
  • why does anyone still take Paul Krugman seriously as an economist? this man obviously has no other purpose in life than to twist around every situation to make it look like big government liberals are smart and everyone else is stupid. he is a liar, a fraud, and a socialist. this attack on Mayor Bloomberg is a perfect example of Krugman's lies. the slow response was caused by his big union pals, but he uses it as an excuse to attack Bloomberg anyway. what should Bloomberg have done in a situation of uncooperative city employees who refused to do their jobs because they're angry about possibly no longer having guaranteed raises every year, limited hours, free cadillac health care, and multi million dollar pensions? i give more credibility to the opinions of Jon Stewart than Paul Krugman at this point. i at least give Krugman credit for taking back his comparison with Katrina. that was outrageous and completely off base. even for him, that comparison was a new low.
    30 Dec 2010, 06:28 PM Reply Like
  • The number of right wing neoliberal arsehats on this site is truly amazing.
    30 Dec 2010, 06:36 PM Reply Like
  • NKVD, like the Stalinist Secret police? Народный комиссариат внутренних дел? Sorry troll, you got nothing.
    30 Dec 2010, 07:11 PM Reply Like
  • Perhaps if you were more adept at the English language you could express yourself better. Let me guess, public school educated.
    30 Dec 2010, 07:15 PM Reply Like
  • Big government promises big but delivers small.
    30 Dec 2010, 06:56 PM Reply Like
  • If you don't like government, move to Somalia - no functioning government for almost 20 years, a true libertarian paradise!

    Are better yet, let's see how capital markets work when there is no State to enforce contract law or maintain and monitor the integrity of the monetary supply.

    The choice isn't between government big or small. The choice is between good government and bad government.
    30 Dec 2010, 07:29 PM Reply Like
  • Better yet see how the country would be without the bankrupting salaries and benifits paid to the government workers.
    30 Dec 2010, 07:32 PM Reply Like
  • NKVD:

    For those that believe size has no relevance, consider this:

    "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have."

    Thomas Jefferson
    30 Dec 2010, 08:54 PM Reply Like
  • NKVD

    Good government does not have to be big
    For it already was good when it was small

    If small government can not enforce contract law, big government can not do it either
    For contract between crooks can not be enforced

    But for true civilized people, who reject liberal Satan, and who respect their Father and their Mather and their neighbor, no enforcement is needed

    And for other, who are crooked and who in love with liberal Satan or NKVD is their name, big government is the only medicine for keeping them from spreading themselves around
    30 Dec 2010, 09:06 PM Reply Like
  • Actually that is Gerald Ford not TJ.
    30 Dec 2010, 11:27 PM Reply Like
  • Krugman is for the first time half right. Bloomburg and the people he appointed have proven themselves incompetent. They are great at getting the city to outlaw people cooking with salt ( when was the in the mayor's job description) but inept at doing the actual job of government. Just imagine if this this fool (Bloomburg) were mayor on 9-11. As for the unions don't ever expect Krugman or anyone else in NY to say anything against them. They will all go down on the ship together. One day the taxpayers (as opposed to the tax-receivers) will revolt.
    I was born in NY and remember mayor LINDSLEY (as Mike Quill called him; Mike was the head of the subway union) and the failure to move snow wrecked him as it will wreck Bloomburg.
    Thank God, I have not had the misery of paying NY taxes in over 40 years.
    30 Dec 2010, 07:06 PM Reply Like
  • you are dreaming... useless and hurting a very competent NY administration.. good luch to you wherever you live. Q!
    30 Dec 2010, 08:47 PM Reply Like
  • Wow am I truly the ONLY person who thinks this was purposely orchestrated by the city in order to SAVE MONEY? NYC is in fiscal trouble, has everyone forgotten this suddenly...
    30 Dec 2010, 08:05 PM Reply Like
  • RE; "orchestrated by the city: You have to define "the city". Unions;Yes. Administration;No. The rotten unions will do anything to screw the average citizen to keep on raising their outrageous benefits.
    30 Dec 2010, 08:10 PM Reply Like
  • Detroit has been pulling this stuff for years in the attempt to blackmail taxpayers into ever increasing taxes in the highest taxed city in our state. They quit plowing the side streets before 2000, while the city was BOOMING due to the overall economy, kudos to Y2K & dotcom, too bad both were temporary/based on bs, and the building of two major sports stadiums, three major casinos and the creation of tax abated "empowerment zones." During this unprecedented influx of cash & taxes, future problems had already started to show.

    Over a decade later and Detroit STILL has more city workers per capita than NY or LA, or even Chicago, Miami or Dallas. ALL thanks to strong city unions. Yet, the roads are still not plowed, the trash still piled up, and government/union corruption is still as rampant as the citizen on citizen crimes.

    First they cut services, then they gave completely up and now just pretend to cut staff/wages right up until a Judge orders the staff reinstated and the contracts paid. Of course this results in fewer services, highter taxes so they raise taxes (again) and round and round it goes.

    Bottom line is, be prepared. We all will be held hostage by contracts, we all will have to figure out how to both pay for ever-increasing taxes while simultaneously paying third parties to do the original job/fix the problem.

    Ah, success.

    Whether or not the union intentionally did this, or this is the result of a lack of resources, does not truly matter at all.

    What NewYorkers (and the rest of us) need to start asking ourselves is, where are we going to get the money to both pay the government AND pay to do the work as well?

    The unincorporated, podunk, hated farmville of my youth looks more and more enticing by the day.
    30 Dec 2010, 08:44 PM Reply Like
  • good luck to you... and the place you you call your home !
    30 Dec 2010, 08:48 PM Reply Like
  • trust me in was intentional. Good luck .
    30 Dec 2010, 08:52 PM Reply Like
  • George Bush and Dick Cheney must have had something to do with this. LOL
    30 Dec 2010, 08:51 PM Reply Like
  • Maybe, Krugman thinks he's attacking a Republican, but, in reality, Bloomberg is simply part of the liberal, big-government pantheon he (Krugman) constantly promotes and adores.

    And, we see how wonderfully such governments perform when it comes to getting real things done. As someone mentioned, they can micromanage everybody's liberties and salt intake, but cannot perform the basic functions of government.
    30 Dec 2010, 08:59 PM Reply Like
  • Did you know the Queens Councilman who made the claim that the supervisors purposely sabotaged the snow removal is a pagan? True. Which is not to say that the five guys that confessed to him weren't telling the truth. We'll see soon enough. Just that I can't get over the fact that there is room in the Republican Party for pagans. It was an eye-opener.
    30 Dec 2010, 09:05 PM Reply Like
  • I hear 30 people have perished huddling together on the Verrazano Bridge.

    And thousands are starving in their temporary shelter at the Forest Hills Tennis Club.

    Warnings abound not to purchase used automobiles which may have been damaged by snowdrifts in Elmhurst and Park Slope.

    Giraffes and hippos at the Bronx Zoo are being slaughtered for their nutritious meat.

    While Habitat for Humanity is set to rebuild entire neighborhoods on Staten Island.
    30 Dec 2010, 11:01 PM Reply Like
  • I'd like to see Krugman out shoveling snow. Doubt he would lift a finger himself. As Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ..." Now these days it's "I'd like that stimulus in 10s and 20s."
    30 Dec 2010, 11:11 PM Reply Like
  • "Krugman may be unaware . . . "
    You could have stopped right there.
    Is it my imagination, or is Tack making Way more sense than usual?
    30 Dec 2010, 11:33 PM Reply Like
  • As a Brooklyn resident, and having lived thru the storm and watched the complexity of Dept of Sanitation's problem, it is clear that Krugman is ignoring most of the reality of the situation.
    How come noone remembers that the storm was an insurmountable problem for all of the local airports? There were no political motives underlying their difficulties, yet I don't hear any persisting complaints about their difficulties!
    31 Dec 2010, 08:00 AM Reply Like
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