Money, and all that goes with it, is merely something humans created to keep themselves busy in the time they have between being born and dying.

ITW wrote:
“Have any of them actually FOLLOWED Krugman over the years?

Or is it they all simply believe that Economics is nothing but a phony social science whose job is to shill for corporations?”
_________________________________________________

I used to read his articles religiously, but now on and off, and to his past credit he attacked W Bush obscene tax cuts for the super wealthy and he attacked Greenspan for agreeing with these tax cuts and the resulting huge deficits, that after Greenspan was vehemently opposing any deficit during Clinton era.
To his past and PRESENT discredit, he is a free trade/NAFTA/globalization/WTO economist, and we all know that all that amalgam of globalization policies has devastated the middle class in this country and is a prime source of our current economic troubles because many people don’t earn enough money and rely on continuous debt.
Also Krugman to his discredit,  is a partisan Democrat and he like many of the so called liberals became mute after Obama took office although Obama is rolling on the same tracks W Bush was rolling on and is implementing the same W Bush policies,both foreign and domestic.
Krugman now is just beating around the bushes and just calling for band aids where the patient needs a surgery. He doesn’t talk about rolling back W Bush obscene tax cuts, he still a big fan of globalization and free trade, he doesn’t call for nationalizing the Feds and breaking up the big banks. He doesn’t call for stopping dismanteling manufacturing plants and shipping them overseas.!
The latest bill that he is lamenting about not passing is toothless useless piece of shit that doesn’t change anything, and some of the Democrats in the house voted against it for that reason.
I don’t recall he warned against the Internet or housing bubbles.
All in all, Krugman is an establishment economist and he has a career to protect, and I understand.!

When “The Satanic Verses” was published, a boring, obscure novelist named Salman Rushdie was thrust into the international spotlight when the ayatollahs of Iran issued a “fatwa” charging “all moslems” with seeking his death. “Rushdie” became “Trotsky” to their “Stalin”.  I remember there was a Pakistani (I think) movie that had a James Bond-type Destroy-the-world-villain named…Salman Rushdie, same as the boring, balding little scholar, now a “Dr No”, “Goldfinger”, or “S.P.E.C.T.R.E”.

So, too, is the “Paul Krugman” 99% of the posters on this thread write about.  I don’t recognize the guy who writes for the Times in their description.  Have any of them actually FOLLOWED Krugman over the years?

Or is it they all simply believe that Economics is nothing but a phony social science whose job is to shill for corporations?

I guess that means only Marx and Marxists are “real” economists…how’s that working out for you, guys?

Doctrine, not to mention self-interest, trumps the facts.  You can observe that over and over again on such things as Fox News Channel.

What is going on since carter presidency is planned and oraganized effort to transfer most of the wealth of the country to the super wealthy class.
All the deregulations and ensuing bubbles were steps in that direction and of course those in the know knew what de-regulation will cause and waited for the desired and expected results.
Paul Krugman is an establishment economist who knows exaclty that fact is what is going on but he chose to misleads his readers and playing dumb.
That legislation which Krugman is crying about is a piece of useless shit. That legislation didn’t change anything of the conditions that led to the current debacle. Mostly it addressed how the Feds can intervene independent of the congress to bail out failing banks that are “too big to fail”!. It is a charade and make-believe bullshitting.
The stage is set for another debacle and another bail-out and more transfer of the taxpayers’ money to the supper wealthy class.!

I think that Paul Krugman is a gentle patriot. Time and again, he patiently
explains and re-explains, knowing full well that the schoolyard bullies are
eyeing an opportunity to steal his lunch when the teacher isn’t looking. Still, he
forges on as only brave gentle men do, of any age.

Agreed, the idea that Allan Greenspan gallantly saw the error of his ways is a
bit over the top. The rest of the essay, however, makes total sense to me.

Krugman and Stiglitz both won the Nobel for Economics. Geithner and
Summers rule the economic roost in Washington. That is no mistake or
oversight. Just ask Allan Greenspan.

(On second thought, have more respect for yourself than that!!)

Paul Krugman is an establishment economist who knows exaclty what is going on but he chose to misleads his readers and playing dumb.
What is going on since carter presidency is planned and oraganized effort to transfer most of the wealth of the country to the super wealthy class.
All the deregulations and ensuing bubbles were steps in that direction and of course those in the know knew what de-regulation will cause and waited for the desired and expected results.
That legislation which Krugman is crying about is a piece of useless shit. That legislation didn’t change anything of the conditions that led to the current debacle. Mostly it addressed how the Feds can intervene independent of the congress to bail out failing banks that are “too big to fail”!. It is a charade and make-believe bullshitting.
The stage is set for another debacle and another bail-out and more transfer of the taxpayers’ money to the supper wealthy class.!

OH, THE NAIVETÉ, MR. KRUGMAN BY KA

Krugman is looking for redemption in all the wrong
places.
As a class one opportunist/shill he knows he only has
to fool most of the people most of the time. His sponsors don’t ask his advice or opinion, they just give him his assignment period.It’s too
bad he doesn’t read Truthdig posts and find out that the rest of us have his number.
Once warmonger Bush3 got the Peace Prize, Krugman’s became worth a lot less.

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.
-Mark Twain

Once again, way ahead of his time.

I thought Krugman’s article was right on.  Repeat:  RIGHT ON !!

Mark, December 15 at 10:48 am

Perhaps you need a reminder that your opinion of the motives of Mr.Krugman are exactly that, your own interpretations.

Based upon this article alone I find his opinion accurate if too entrenched in the status quo. I would fault him for believing that a solution can be found within the Democratic Legislature rather than in a reformation of our increasingly bought and paid for legislators.

He who passes up the opportunity to do bankers and insurance executives a nasty turn is a traitor.

Republicans, and far too many Democrats, are basically economic royalists.

The Legislative Branches of government are now weighted toward the nearly incoherent because American politics is now defined as a permanent campaign -  governing has been turned into a permanent campaign, remade into an instrument designed to sustain an elected official’s public popularity - the ‘public’ being the fat cats providing the outrageous sums of lucre needed to stage a campaign. 

In a nut shell - politics is policy.

In the mainstream narrative of which Mr. Krugman is a card carrying member, the recent House vote against the so-called financial reform bill, uses the term “27 Democrats” as representing collaborative obstruction. One of those no votes came from Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who has sense enough to recognize what a fraud this legislation presents. Apparently Krugman, with all his Nobel credentials (why does that sound familiar?) can not.

Yes Mr. Krugman, politics American style is a failure. We the people are just a diversion to the wealthy and the corporate right, not to be taken too seriously, since we don’t have any power.

Our misery, equivalent to the misery of frogs in a science fair project that didn’t come out well for the frogs.

To the left, we are a social experiement for their charity, to the right tools to be used in wars and a cash crop to be harvested regularly.

Our rights, our fears, hopes and dreams just a soap opera to be watched from afar, that only occaisonaly interferes with the important business of accumlating money and world power.

Are these columnists drug-tested?

Yes Mr. Krugman the Fox is definitely going to pay to have a guard dog at the hen house….  Jesus H. Christmas what an incredible waste of words…

“The evil that men do live after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.”

Rather than dwell on the mistakes of the past I would commend Mr. Krugman for a pointed critique of our Legislature’s far too cozy relationship with crooks.

OH, THE NAIVETÉ, MR. KRUGMAN by KA

Krugman does an excellent job of identifying the
problem & its causes. What he left out is his role as
a shill in foisting the fascist agenda on the public
by using his credentials to legitimize their scheme.

By acting like an ex post facto whistle blower, I
think his conscience may have temporarily caused him
a moment of candor.

Some evil doers react in unusual ways,e.g., like
Jimmy Carter building houses & Robert Reich writing
articles that identify the villains behind the
current economic meltdown; perhaps trying to make up for his time in the Clinton clique.