KRUGMAN: Trump will turn America into an 'all-out kleptocracy' like Russia and Ukraine

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Paul Krugman, the Nobel-winning economist and New York Times columnist, once again bemoaned the economic and political future of the US under President-elect Donald Trump in a series of tweets on Tuesday.

This time, Krugman took aim at both Trump's transition team and the infrastructure plan that the president-elect has proposed.

Krugman implied that Trump's $550 billion infrastructure plan — which was reduced from a $1 trillion proposal during the campaign — using both private and public investment would be used to enrich Trump and his friends. The plan calls for equity investments from private companies that are then given tax cuts and ownership stakes in a final product.

Thus in Krugman's and other analysts' eyes, this would turn large-scale infrastructure investments like bridges and airports that have long been owned by the government into private projects.

"His transition team is basically all lobbyists and his infrastructure plan, such as it is, sounds as if it's going to be largely about privatizing public assets," Krugman wrote.

The economist said the inclusion of lobbyists within Trump's transition team and fact that Trump has passed control of his businesses to his children show that he "won't separate himself from his business interests." Krugman said Trump would use these private infrastructure contracts to enrich himself or people with whom he is associated.

"In short, we're almost surely looking at all-out kleptocracy, along the lines of what happened in Russia or Ukraine. Strange, isn't it?" Krugman wrote. "After all, it's not as if we've just empowered the same people who stole all those assets abroad."

Here's the full tweetstorm:

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/798572979399454720
So, who could have seen this coming? The man who refused to release his tax returns -- getting almost no heat from the media 1/

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/798573167291887616
is now making it clear that he won't separate himself from his business interests. His transition team is basically all lobbyists 2/

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/798573384061820928
and his infrastructure plan, such as it is, sounds as if it's going to be largely about privatizing public assets 3/

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/798573756490858496
In short, we're almost surely looking at all-out kleptocracy, along the lines of what happened in Russia or Ukraine. Strange, isn't it? 4/

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/798573934836793344
After all, it's not as if we've just empowered the same people who stole all those assets abroad. Oh, wait 5/

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