In the introduction to last week’s post on my blog I appended the statement “Health warning: contains substantial portions of irony. May exceed your daily allowance”. Judging from the comments onBusiness Spectator, that was indeed the case for some readers. So I’ve eschewed irony in this week’s post.
Much of the irony last week was in this sentence – and the links gave the clue that my tongue was planted firmly in my cheek:
“Now, as any well trained economist knows, it’s a matter of simple logic that what happens to private debt is irrelevant to macroeconomics most of the time, because “debt is one person’s liability, but another person’s asset.”
The last two links led to earlier Krugman posts: no irony there. But the first two led respectively to the Wikipedia entry on irony and the wonderful scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where a logician proves that if a woman weighs the same as a duck, she’s made of wood and is therefore a witch:
“Bedevere: Exactly. So, logically…
Villager #1: If… she… weighs… the same as a duck,… she’s made of wood.
Bedevere: And therefore?
Villager #2: A witch!”
Click here to read the rest of this post:
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/12/3/economy/neverending-debt-trap
