economists Markus Brückner and Hans Peter Grüner, who find a striking correlation between economic performance and political extremism in advanced nations: in both America and Europe, periods of low economic growth tend to be associated with a rising vote for right-wing and nationalist political parties. The rise of the Tea Party, in other words, was exactly what we should have expected in the wake of the economic crisis.

—Paul Krugman: via NYT

and in separate news…who can resist

This bailout wasn’t done to help the Greeks; it was done to help the French and German banks. They’ve poured some water on the fire, but the fire has not gone out.

—Niall Ferguson: via NYT. Followed by a PIIE bonus

the public finances in the majority of advanced industrial countries are in a worse state today than at any time since the industrial revolution. Restoring fiscal balance will be a drag on growth for years to come.

—Willem Buiter, Citigroup’s top economist: via NYT

This is 60 years of history in the making, so the idea that the euro simply falls apart at first test of its credibility, I think it highly unlikely. It might well be in 20 years time it doesn’t exist but the idea that it’s not going to exist in the next year because the market is worried about Spain and Portugal’s funding requirements is ridiculous.

—Jim O’Neill: via Bloomberg. He would go on to observe that there are “lots of weaknesses of EMU and this crisis is demonstrating what they are…At the core of it, the inability to have a central fiscal authority is a major problem and that they are going to have to deal with,” but he refused to foreclose on the prospect of continued cooperation in the form of the EMU.

You just had the flash-crash on Thursday. Here we are at Cannes. It’s almost like Rupert Murdoch made it happen

—Shia LaBeouf, offering his own take on the economic and market tumult of the past two weeks: via Dealbreaker