The C3PO Award

Don Luskin is running a contest for the best (worst) Paul Krugman quote, in 6 different categories. Another reader suggested a 7th category, I propose a 8th, inspired by an Eidelblog post, the C3PO "We are doomed" award for paranoid negativism. Here are a couple I can come up with off hand.

"Without the Bush tax cuts, it would have been difficult to cope with the fiscal implications of an aging population. With those tax cuts, the task is simply impossible. The accident — the fiscal train wreck — is already under way."

"So what happens if the housing bubble bursts? It will be the same thing all over again, unless the Fed can find something to take its place. And it's hard to imagine what that might be. After all, the Fed's ability to manage the economy mainly comes from its ability to create booms and busts in the housing market. If housing enters a post-bubble slump, what's left?"

"But in any case it was Mr. Cheney, speaking last weekend, who gave us our first post-election hints about Mr. Bush's economic policy. And the news is not good. "

"For a generation Americans have depended on a superb volunteer Army to keep us safe - both from our enemies, and from the prospect of a draft. What will we do once that Army is broken?"

"Of course, the coming of the New Deal was hastened by a severe national depression. Strange to say, we may be working on that, too."

"But the American military isn't just bogged down in Iraq; it's deteriorating under the strain. We may already be in real danger: what threats, exactly, can we make against the North Koreans? That John Bolton will yell at them? And every year that the war goes on, our military gets weaker."

The only problem with this idea is how do you choose? There are too many possiblities, just about every column. Most of these are just from the last month.