This purported quote from Krugman has been making the internet rounds:
People on twitter might be joking, but in all seriousness, we would see a bigger boost in spending and hence economic growth if the earthquake had done more damage.
Apparently the quote is a fake, and Krugman is irritated that people would attribute “stupid or outrageous” remarks to him without verifying their authenticity.
Certainly the people circulating this quote should have checked their sources more carefully. All the same, there’s a reason people assumed it was genuine. After all, Krugman is the guy who, the day after the 9/11 attacks, quite genuinely wrote:
Ghastly as it may seem to say this, the terror attack – like the original day of infamy, which brought an end to the Great Depression [sic] – could even do some economic good. … Now, all of a sudden, we need some new office buildings. … rebuilding will generate at least some increase in business spending.
For quotes from other members of the glaziers’ lobby, see here.
It’s right on his Google plus page. Pretty sure he said it himself.
And now having followed your link, I see what you mean.
I’m really not surprised it was fake. Desperately searching for a (false) silver lining in a disaster is one thing, but hoping that a disaster was bigger is another. You can make the argument that the latter is a logical extension of the former, but then you’re assuming that more logic is involved than may actually be the case.
All in all, it would probably have been great satire if it was not intentionally presented as true.
Another title for this post could have been (fake) Paul Krugman’s Broken Glasssssss Song.