Should-Read: Paul Krugman: The Durability of Inflation Derp

Should-Read: Marvin Goodfriend must have been much less impressive in his confirmation hearing than I would have imagined possible. I need to try to figure out why: Paul Krugman: The Durability of Inflation Derp: “What’s striking about the economists who predicted runaway inflation in 2009-2011 is that as far as I can tell none of them has even gotten to step (a), acknowledging their mistake…

…They kept saying the same wrong thing year after year (which is what makes it derp), and even those who eventually stopped saying the same thing never admitted past mistakes. Thus when Bloomberg tried, four years later, to track down economists who signed the infamous open letter to Ben Bernanke insisting that quantitative easing would “debase the dollar,” it couldn’t find a single person to admit that the original warning was wrong.

Why this durability of unrepentant, unprofessional derp? Surely at least part of it is political: predicting doom from money-printing appeals to powerful forces on the right, is indeed a sort of credential that guarantees favor, no matter how wrong the prediction. And let’s face it: the economics profession is essentially craven…. There are no costs to unprofessional behavior that serves right-wing ideology; you’ll still get invited to all the meetings, get treated with respect, even get letters from liberal and moderate colleagues supporting your nomination to high office…. And so today we have Marvin Goodfriend…. Inflation derp endures. In fact, it’s good for your career…