Tom Firey over at the Cato Institute took a look at Paul Krugman's Monday column and compared Krugman's so-called "factual" statements with the actual facts.

Krugman doesn't come out looking good on several counts. First, in what appears to be the norm for employees of The New York Times, Krugman addresses Reagan-era economic policies without disclosing that he was on the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1982-1983.

Second, in his effort to downplay the so-called "Reagan economy," Krugman fails to mention that by his standard the "Clinton economy" was worst (except for the very height of the tech bubble).

Finally, Firey makes this very important point when it comes to politicians of any stripe taking credit (or blame) for the economy.

This leads to a broader question: How much credit can any president take for economic growth that occurs during his presidency?

To be sure, Reagan deserves some credit for improving on the economic trends of the 1970s, but credit should also go to Gerry Ford and Jimmy Carter for taking the first steps toward deregulation, and to Paul Volcker and the Fed for tamping down inflation. Likewise, the economic success of Clinton and George W. Bush owe some debt to Reagan (and, in W’s case, to Clinton) and much to Alan Greenspan (not to mention Silicon Valley). If the United States successfully combats the current economic slowdown, the credit should go to Ben Bernanke and his Fed colleagues, not to any stimulus package cobbled together by the White House or Capitol Hill.

Economic policies are intended to have long-term effects (though those policies can have some immediate effects). But economic conditions are only partly the product of economic policies — they are products of many different decisions by many different economic actors, most of whom are not elected. Politicians receive far too much credit and blame for current economic conditions.

Krugman’s claims about the Reagan record are misleading and, in the case of middle-class income, outright false. But more significantly, the concept underlying Krugman’s column is facile.

Krugman: facile.

That works.