
The second Great Depression has arrived … - Paul Krugman - Anon84
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/the-second-great-depression-has-arrived/
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lionheart
Can we get "in Ukraine" added to the title?

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AndrewWarner
scare tactic by a journalist to get attention. He's referring to Ukraine.

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andyking
I don't think Paul Krugman is the kind of low-ranking hack who'd need to get
attention in that way.

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kingkongrevenge
He's a hack. God do I look forward to the liquidation of the new york times so
we don't have to put up with friedman and krugman anymore. Not to mention
about five others.

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unperson
I don't really understand the merits of comparing the production of a few
months in one country to that of several years in another, but then again I'm
not an economist (is he?).

For those interested, here is the source for his US data with a full history
(rather than a selective sample), which clearly shows that recessions are
relatively common:

<http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/INDPRO>

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DenisM
1\. Yes, he is an economist. He's got a Nobel in Economics just this year. You
can diss economics as a whole (Taleb-style or otherwose) but you can not diss
Krugman alone.

2\. The comparison is not of output of one country to another. The comparison
is of one country, Ukraine, to istelf months by month and it shows a 28% YoY
decline in manufacturing output. 28% umber is hard to judge without context,
so to give perspective second graph shows that 28% is a halmark of a deep
depression like the one in 1930s in the US.

3\. Recessins are common, 28% drop is not common. Ukraine is in for a lot of
pain.

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fauigerzigerk
It appears to be the third not the second great depression for Ukraine.
According to the world fact book they had a 40% GDP decline in the nineties. I
suspect it's mostly commodities related this time.

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danteembermage
How much oil production is there in Ukraine? Don't they also produce a lot of
grain, which has gone through big price swings as well? I don't know enough to
criticize, I'm just wondering if commodity price swings directly affect GDP or
only indirectly through lost revenue.

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DenisM
No oil.

 _Ukraine depends on imports to meet about three-fourths of its annual oil and
natural gas requirements._

[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/...](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/geos/up.html#Econ)

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delano
This is bullshit.

