Economics Bloggers Fact-Checked the Presidential Debate

Economists and economics pundits who took to Twitter during the presidential debate spent much of the time fact-checking the candidates. For the most part, they focused on some dubious assertions made by Donald Trump.

Trump said the U.S. is losing jobs. Dean Baker, economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research disagrees:

Politico editor Michael Grunwald supplied the visuals:

Trump hammered home the picture of jobs leaving the U.S.:

"So Ford is leaving. You see that, their small car division leaving. Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio. They're all leaving."

That's not the full story, countered Wall Street Journal global economics editor Neil King:

Trump also pointed to China's monetary policy as harmful to the U.S. economy:

"You look at what China is doing to our country in terms of making our product. They're devaluing their currency, and there's nobody in our government to fight them."

Here's what Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman had to say about that:

Justin Wolfers of the University of Michigan supplied the visuals:

Wolfers also disagreed that the U.S. wasn't negotiating trade deals that were tough enough:

Harold Pollack, co-author of The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated, took issue with what Trump said after Clinton talked about the need for affordable child care:

MIT professor Simon Johnson, former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, went after Trump following this exchange:

CLINTON: In fact, Donald was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis. He said, back in 2006, "Gee, I hope it does collapse, because then I can go in and buy some and make some money." Well, it did collapse.

TRUMP: That's called business, by the way.

Johnson also questioned Trump's response to Clinton's statement that Trump's tax returns from earlier in his career indicated that he had paid nothing to the IRS in those years.

He also questioned Trump's admiration of Ronald Reagan as a job creator.

Trump called U.S. energy policy "a disaster." Here's the reply of Princeton professor Alan B. Kreuger, former chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers:

(Debate quotes courtesy of The Washington Post)