IN A RELATED STORY, KINDERGARTEN IS REALLY PAYING OFF FOR ME

First of all, I'm back, after being on some official TFM businessnessness...

Secondly, Professor Krugman has some fun with those who A) blame the current recession on Clinton, and B) attribute the late-90's surpluses to Reagan.

If we're allowed to give credit for good events to policies 16 years earlier, history needs to be rewritten in interesting ways. The high point of the Reagan years was the 1982-4 "morning in America" recovery - but clearly that wasn't Reagan's doing, it was validation for the policies of Lyndon Johnson. (See, he was right not to raise taxes to pay for the Vietnam War.) For that matter, the great postwar boom validated the policies of Herbert Hoover: he liquidated the farmers. liquidated the workers, purged the rottennness, and the economy thrived.

hehehe.