Saturday, March 28, 2009

Paul Krugman Wants More, or Else!

Paul Krugman's in the news this weekend.

The ubiquitous Nobel-winning economics professor and New York Times columnist has in recent weeks been hammering the Obama administration for its timidity.
In his recent essay in Rolling Stone, Krugman praised the scale of the administration's market intervention, but suggested that "the current economic disaster demands even more aggressive action than Obama has taken so far."

Well, Krugman's calls for even more collectivization are getting some attention in the left-wing press. Newsweek's new cover story features Krugman in an essay entitled, "
Obama’s Nobel Headache." The article, by Evan Thomas, portrays Krugman as "nervous, shy, sweet and fiercely sure of himself." But Krugman's getting a cordial cold shoulder from President Obama, which is an interesting situation, considering the following passage:

Krugman has a bit of a reputation for settling scores. "He doesn't suffer fools. He doesn't like hauteur in any shape or form. He doesn't like to be f––ked with," says his friend and colleague Princeton history professor Sean Wilentz.
If he doesn't get his way with a bolder direction from Obama, don't be surprised to see even more strident hit pieces against the Democrats' economic program. That's the theme Mike Allen takes up in his piece at The Politico, "Krugman: The Left's New Anti-Obama"(via Memeorandum):

What is striking about this development is that Obama’s most thoughtful critic is taking on the president from the left at a time when, as Jonathan Alter notes, so many others are reflexively arguing that the administration is trying too much too soon.
See also my essay, "Democrats to Milk Economic Crisis for Trillions," where I note, "This is why progressive leftists love Paul Krugman. The guy's a Princeton economist and Nobel laureate. More importantly, the man's an "establishment" statist who can use his "credentials" to discredit those who rightly repudiate his socialist program."

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