Paul Krugman is your friend. [View All]

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Paul Krugman is our foremost progressive economist. That doesn't mean he's the best but he's widely respected, just won the Nobel prize and has authored best-selling books to educate the public about liberal economics. (In the same way Stephen Hawking has written best-selling books to educate the public about black holes and time.)

In short, Paul Krugman is a treasure. He's one of our, meaning Democrats, greatest assets.

Some people don't like Paul Krugman because he was critical of Obama during the primaries. In actuality, he was critical of Obama's split-the-difference approach to some economic issues. That's not trashing. That's expressing a valid concern, and one that hasn't gotten any less valid.

There's a tendency to project primary madness onto others. If Krugman preferred Hillary's health care plan then he's a Hillary supporter and thus dismiss-able. Actually, Hillary's plan was slightly more to the left and was thus better from his perspective as a progressive economist. Had Obama favored mandates and Hillary not then Paul Krugman would have said, "Hillary's plan is too weak." The man has written about these issues for years and will tend to come down on the side of ideas that agree with his already fully developed thinking on these topics.

(I'm not a mind reader so I will concede that it is possible Krugman doesn't trust or have warm feelings toward Obama, but he doesn't hate him and is certainly not likely to push bad policy out of personal animus.)

If it seems like Krugman is always criticizing Obama, he is. That's because Obama is in the center of the Democratic party on economic matters and Krugman is a little to the left on economic matters. So Krugman's ideas will always be pushing Obama to the left.

And that's a good thing. There is no shortage of economic voices pushing him to the right. And "don't criticize" will lead to Obama being pushed to the right while the left sits respectfully silent.

Krugman doesn't want Obama to fail. He wants Obama to succeed as an economic progressive. Right or wrong, Krugman believes that is what works.

In his view the stimulus package is in serious danger of being ineffective. And the time to speak up is BEFORE the plan is drafted. He publishes this view because he wants a better plan, not because he wants people to dislike Barack.

So please set aside any primary-era pre-judgement, accept that Paul Krugman is a brilliant economist who genuinely wants the best for everyday people and read this column with an open mind. It's a very important voice.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/opinion/09krugman.html?_r=2