Paul Krugman: Trump’s Delusions of Competence
Trumps Delusions of Competence
by Paul Krugman at the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/opinion/trumps-delusions-of-competence.html?_r=0
"SNIP..............
But leave questions about whether Mr. Trump is the business genius he claims to be on one side. Does business success carry with it the knowledge and instincts needed to make good economic policy? No, it doesnt.
True, the historical record isnt much of a guide, since only one modern president had a previous successful career in business. And maybe Herbert Hoover was an outlier.
But while we havent had many business leaders in the White House, we do know what kind of advice prominent businessmen give on economic policy. And its often startlingly bad, for two reasons. One is that wealthy, powerful people sometimes dont know what they dont know and whos going to tell them? The other is that a country is nothing like a corporation, and running a national economy is nothing like running a business.
Heres a specific, and relevant, example of the difference. Last fall, the now-presumed Republican nominee declared: Our wages are too high. We have to compete with other countries. Then, as has happened often in this campaign, Mr. Trump denied that he had said what he had, in fact, said straight talker, my toupee. But never mind.
.............SNIP"