We have experts for a reason, right? And yet, time and time, the so-called experts of today prove that they are either completely incompetent or can’t be trusted.
One recent example comes to us in the form of New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.
You’d think that a man who writes for The Times, a long-respected and well-known publication, would not only be an actual expert but could be trusted. And the fact that the panel who sits for the Nobel Prize awards commended him for his “expertise” should only confirm that.
And yet, on Thursday, he declared that the “war on inflation is over.” Not only did he say this, but he added that “We won, at very little cost.”
Accompanying his X post was a graph that seemingly proved his declaration as fact. Then again, the title of the graph told a very different story. “CPI ex food, energy, shelter, used cars.”
As you can see by both the title and the graph itself, CPI has gone down for everything except four things, and three of those things just happen to be the most basic of human needs.
The war on inflation is over. We won, at very little cost pic.twitter.com/opumf3nEvL
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 12, 2023
As you can also see, the graph and title are so misleading it required the X platform to add “context” and “Community Notes” to the post.
As the Community Notes read, “The exclusion of food, shelter, energy, and used cars is misleading. All prices in CPI shows year over year inflation at 3.7% as of September 2023.”
Of course, Krugman received much more criticism as various individuals saw his post.
As Washington Times columnist and former Trump 2020 communications director Tim Murtaugh noted, “This is fantastic news for all Americans who don’t need food, a place to live, or fuel & electricity.” Note the dripping sarcasm here.
This is fantastic news for all Americans who don’t need food, a place to live, or fuel & electricity.
(Note the subtitle on Krugman’s chart)
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) October 12, 2023
Similar posts were made by more social media users, including financial sites, other news outlets, and, of course, politicians.
Dude if you're going to cook your numbers at least put it as a footnote instead of in the title of the graph
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) October 12, 2023
You excluded everything people needed to live.
Come on, Paul.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) October 12, 2023
Naturally, the heavy criticism led to Krugman posting a comment of his own about the graph, claiming that he may have been “too flip” with it, given that the “measure” he’s been using does have its “flaws” and so can’t be perfect.
I was too flip here. I've been using this particular measure for a while, so want to be consistent. But it has flaws (medical insurance too optimistic). But almost every measure now <3 percent. 1/ https://t.co/fNN1dM42JC
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 13, 2023
But that’s not the real problem with Krugman or his post, is it?
Not by a long shot.
No, the real problem is that someone like him, a so-called expert, a man who undoubtedly went through countless years of schooling and supposedly worked his way to the top of his field, is blatantly “misleading” the American people.
And unfortunately, he’s not the only one out there doing that as of late.
Remember Dr. Anthony Fauci?
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he was believed to be a respected scientist and doctor, again at the top of his field. It was his “expertise” that led then-President Trump to choose him to take the lead on how we should handle the pandemic as a nation.
But it soon became clear that Fauci, like so many on the political left, wasn’t actually interested in the science or the facts, at least not after achieving some sort of national stardom and a place in power. Before we knew it, he was flagrantly ignoring the science that he once valued and then even blatantly lying about it.
To be sure, we wanted to trust him. I mean, he was an expert in a field that very few others even knew about. We wanted to believe that his credentials and supposedly earned merit meant something.
But he turned on us, broke our trust, and betrayed our beliefs.
And since then, “experts” lying to us for their own gain or to support a political standing has only gotten more prevalent.
Krugman is just the latest to do so. The reactions his post was given are proof that America is done trusting in experts.
He just rendered all his credentials meaningless…
