Responsible Demagoguery

Paul Paul Krugman argues,

The truth is that predictions of am imminent fiscal crisis made no sense, and would have been considered irresponsible demagoguery if the people making the predictions weren’t so Serious.

I have to disagree. By the definition of "demagoguery" applied in modern political and economic debate, decrying budget deficits and predicting imminent crises are definitionally excluded. In fairness, yes, there are still a few hold-outs who would define such statements as responsible demagoguery, but they really need to get with the times.

I'm not sure what dictionary Krugman's using, but it's probably reality based. [Scoff]