How Would You Feel With Paul Krugman as Chairman of the Fed? Apparently, He'd Consider It

CNN panelist Ken Rogoff made a "scary" proposition, in the words of Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard, during a recent television appearance with Paul Krugman on Fareed Zakaria's show.

“By the way...” he sarcastically said to the man who advocates preparing for an alien invasion as a way to restore the U.S. economy, “what would you think of the idea of appointing you Federal Reserve Chairman as a credible signal?”

The discussion followed a segment where Krugman tirelessly advocated more quantitative easing and inflation.

"[The Federal Reserve] should be doing more of that," he said, "[and] when we hashed over these issues a dozen years ago with regard to Japan, we kept on coming up that it would really help in situations like the one we're in now if the Fed would make it clear that it is willing to tolerate a higher rate of inflation ... it can't help that happen right away but ... a signal that it's willing to tolerate a higher rate of inflation would be really helpful."

When Zakaria asked the other panelist, Rogoff, whether he was concerned about high inflation rates, Rogoff responded that he most certainly is not. Rather, he suggested we appoint Paul Krugman to be chairman of the Federal Reserve to send that unequivocal "signal" Krugman discussed.

The two acknowledged that it was a joke, of course.

Krugman added that, "People have been saying that Ben Bernanke should go around wearing a Hawaiian shirt..." as a possible signal instead, adding that he would accept the position "as long as someone else does the actual work of running the place."

Watch the interview, which may indicate why CNN has been hitting 20-year lows:

One NewsBusters commenter sarcastically asked whether appointing Krugman to be chairman of the Fed would work as well as appointing a community organizer as president, while another said he wasn't sure if he would trust Krugman as the new judge on "American Idol."

It probably doesn't help that Krugman told readers to "pay no attention to the warnings that any day now we'll turn into Greece" in a Thursday New York Times article, before encouraging still more record-breaking spending.

(H/T: Newsbusters)