Nobel winner warns 'extremely destructive' Trump grifts are breaking the economy

President Donald Trump and his family's self-enrichment schemes, which stand to net them $1.4 billion in crypto profits alone, are more than a moral issue, Nobel Prize-winning economist-turned-political pundit Paul Krugman told MS NOW's Ari Melber on Wednesday — they're an active threat to the U.S. economy.

"We talked earlier in the program about what is wrong with Trump's corruption, how it also violates his own claims and past vows," said Melber. "I thought I would start by asking you in plain English, as an economist, what is the cost to the rest of us, the public, if the government is corrupt or captured, separate from the morality?"

Krugman used the analogy of the infamous Philippine autocrat Ferdinand Marcos and his "crony capitalism scheme" that decimated that country's economy.

"My parents' generation used to say, 'It's not what you know, it's who you know,'" said Krugman. "In other words, Trump has created a situation in which "success in business depends on having the right connections and having the favor of the leader, supreme leader, whatever."

This state of affairs, he said, is "extremely destructive."

"It does mean that all of the incentives on business are to curry favor, not to actually be good," said Krugman. "Especially that if what it takes to curry favor is just who is best at funneling money to the president's family and his friends." This is a massive departure from what actually makes the U.S. economy work, he said, which is that "we rewarded actual productivity, we rewarded creation of actual value, as opposed to just making the White House happy."

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