Hacker News Reader

[T]he crisis in Greece is making [the] people who opposed health care reform and are itching for an excuse to dismantle Social Security very, very happy.

Krugman is a great economist, but this isn't economics. It's mostly about Republicans. He mentions Death Panels.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics"

Maybe "economics" should be added explicitly to the guidelines? I've seen very few stories on generic macroeconomics here that produce interesting discussion beyond a general libertarians vs. liberals pop-economics debate.

"Even more important, however, is the fact that we have a clear path to economic recovery, while Greece doesn’t."

It really doesn't get much more subjective than this.

I think the fact the US dollar is a reserve currency has a little more to do with confidence than the other factors Krugman mentions. The US is basically banking on the idea that they can debase their currency to buy their own debt (http://bit.ly/78TtQc). Faking demand keeps the interest rates for their bonds lower and there is the presumption that the US dollar won't collapse because other nations are forced to buy it for their reserves.

We’re Not Greece