Krugman on the Central Debate March 7, 2011March 22, 2017 From his latest column (worth reading in full), here’s Paul Krugman’s bottom line: . . . Over the next few weeks, House Republicans will try to blackmail the Obama administration into accepting their proposed spending cuts, using the threat of a government shutdown. They’ll claim that those cuts would be good for America in both the short term and the long term. But the truth is exactly the reverse: Republicans have managed to come up with spending cuts that would do double duty, both undermining America’s future and threatening to abort a nascent economic recovery. ☞ And if you doubt that Republicans know how to undermine an economy, just look at how they managed to upend the Clinton/Gore prosperity of the Nineties. $25/MONTH UNLIMITED ANDROID Marian Calabro: “People seem to tie themselves in knots over cell service. Why? I’ve been a Virgin Mobile no-contract devotee for years, even though I’m hardly in VM’s teenybopper demographic. Just upgraded to an LG Optimus V Android 2.2 phone for $149. The payoff comes in the low monthly rate. VM offers unlimited data, Web, email, messaging, apps, and 300 voice minutes on the Sprint network for $25 a month. Since I’m not a big talker, I never use 300 minutes. But if I’m retroactively vaccinated with a phonograph needle (remember that cliché?), I can switch to 1,200 minutes for $40 or unlimited for $60. This must be a great deal, because the LG Optimus is out of stock temporarily. I wish it had a keyboard, but getting used to the touch screen has been easier than expected. Moreover, I feel like I’m learning something new, which is always gratifying. VM’s customer service remains quite good. Other frugal readers may want to check this out.” CONTORTION Talk about overcrowding. Check out this video, if you have a few minutes to go slack-jawed in claustrophobic amazement.