Stock market makes Krugman weep

Paul Greenburg:

When the news came that the stock market had broken 13,000 last Wednesday, I thought I heard the strangest sound in the background: quiet sobbing.
Of course. That had to be the New York Times' man in the economy and all-around pundit, Paul Krugman, crying in his beer. Though, given today's economy, he is probably drinking the best single-malt Scotch on the market.
But nothing seems to depress this expert like good news. Here the stock market is at an all-time high, the unemployment rate keeps dropping below low, but our expert keeps warning that The End Is Near. It's kind of funny in an unintended way. Think Woody Allen doing Shakespearean tragedy.
For just a moment there, when the stock market had its big hiccup so long ago -- back in February, which now seems the Middle Ages -- Mr. Krugman could scarcely contain his glee. He was Mr. Happiness himself. For at last his hour had come. Hot dawg. All those sinners would see the error of their ways now.
Exulting in the coming woe, our own academic Eeyore dashed off a fantasy dated Feb. 27, 2008, in which he looked back -- with ill-concealed satisfaction -- at the dire fate he had long foreseen for the American economy. His cheery vision began: "The great market meltdown of 2007 began exactly a year ago, with a 9 percent fall in the Shanghai market, followed by a 416-point slide in the Dow."
That classic of a column foresaw the disaster that would surely be under way by now, like a gathering economic tsunami: "For a couple of months after the shock of Feb. 27, markets oscillated wildly, soaring on bits of apparent good news, then plunging again. But by late spring, it was clear that the self-reinforcing cycle of complacency had given way to a self-reinforcing cycle of anxiety." Translation: Come on, Catastrophe. After all, this is a guy who lives for a repeat of 1929.
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It is not just Mr. Krugman's recurrent prophecies of another Crash that impress -- he has been making those since memories runneth not to the contrary -- but the uncanny effect he has on the market. He no sooner predicts disaster than the dawgone thing goes sky-high again, setting new records. Like the hoofer who is told to play Sophocles but can't stop breaking into musical comedy.
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I've saved my favorite Krugmanism of all time for those occasions when I may need a bit of cheering up: "And when the chickens that didn't hatch come home to roost, we will rue the days when, misled by sloppy accounting and rosy scenarios, we gave away the national nest egg."
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Is Krugman's gloomy outlook because he was given options on NY Times stock as part of his compensation package. Too bad he didn't just take short positions. I think one reason the writers of the NY Times think the economy is bad is because there business has been so bad for the last seven years. Jonah Goldberg suggest that whenever the market takes off it is time for Krugman's dog to go hide under the porch to keep from getting kicked. Well, at least they hide his column behind Tiems Select now so must of us can ignore it.