Reality Has a Well-Known Liberal Bias, Paul Krugman Edition

Why don’t facts say what we want them to say? Paul Krugman has been on this beat for a long time, notably writing in 2014 about conservatives unable to deal with the fact that the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, was doing what it was designed to do.

Here, Krugman catches The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis compiling pesky facts that show private sector employment during Obama’s presidency has not been the nightmare of Republican fever dreams. In fact, the rate of private sector job growth since the recession hit bottom has been much better than anything we saw under George W. Bush.

Another inconvenient fact Krugman’s been tracking over the years is that inflation has remained extremely low in spite of constant warnings from the Right that hyperinflation is just about to break out or is already happening (to argue that it’s already happening, some have claimed that Obama’s minions at the Bureau of Labor Statistics manipulate its CPI measurement). I mean, we’ve all seen recent spikes in the prices of our Rembrandts and van Goghs, right? Clearly inflation is here!

Krugman reminds us that one proponent of inflation-is-here-to-eat-your-children nonsense is Marco Rubio’s new benefactor Paul Singer. Seriously, Singer believes his anecdotal evidence that real estate prices are up in Manhattan and London and that high-end art is more expensive these days means that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) must be understated. Yes, that’s right, clearly the CPI that measures the things we mere peasants consume, like food and gas, must be wrong because Paul Singer once saw an expensive apartment for sale in the Upper West Side.

(General explanation of the concept of liberal bias here. Corddry quote found here and Colbert quote here.)