Posted 3:26 PM by Robert

What Will Paul Do?

Paul Krugman may be working on tomorrow's column even now! What could it concern?

Well, there's really no doubt what a serious economist interested in politically significant developments would write about. Why, such a person would write about the dramatic and unexpected decline in jobless claims reported today! Last week's drop was to the lowest level since February. There's lots to write about, since the Labor Department cautions against reading too much into the improvement because July is always a volatile month, while some economists see the claims fall as showing surprising strength in the job market that is evidence the economy is on the mend. For example, John Lonski, chief economist at Moody's Investors Service in New York said: "I think this puts a stake in the heart of those that claim recession is still with us."

But my guess is that Herr Doktoprofessor will write about the declining bond market and how it signals that the United States is on its way to becoming the next Argentina and, of course, that its all George Bush's fault.

And maybe there will be a conspiracy of some sort, too. I just love Herr Doktorprofessor's conspiracy theories.

UPDATE: And I doubt that any of the very pertinent considerations found in this analysis of the federal deficit will feature substantially in tomorrow's column.

Link from Don Luskin.