Don Luskin Says Paul Krugman Isn't Nobel Prize Material---HA HA HA!

[Composed Thinker]

I'm sure that a highly educated, respected, and noted academic and journalist is worried about the words of a college dropout who writes for a publication with odd, dishonest, and not-very-respected financial writers. I'm sure Krugman, a future Nobel Prize winner by his colleagues, who are - you guessed it - also distinguished academics.

And one other thing. The Nobel Prize in economics will be announced in a matter of days. Krugman's second-rate work in economics hardly deserves any special recognition, but as Bruce Bartlett <http://poorandstupid.com/talkingpoints> told me, "You have to remember the well of those truly deserving of the award is running dry. Everyone who really deserves it is either dead or has already won. This means that second-tier intellects like Krugman are indeed in the running. However, the main reason why he might win is because the Nobel Committee often sends political messages with its awards. Knowing how much Europeans hate George W. Bush, I wouldn't put it past them to give the award to his most vicious critic as a way of sticking their finger in his eye."

So we're up against something very bad here, and very big. And it may get bigger before it's over. Give up? No... I'm flashing on another movie...

"RICK: Had a close one, eh?

":LASZLO: Yes, rather.

"RICK: Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this, what you're fighting for?

"LASZLO: We might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die."

Nuff said. Now back to work.

[La_Serpiente]

1. If Krugman won the Nobel...

If Krugman won the Nobel, he'd have bragging rights for a very long time. Krugman is one of the radical founders of a total new approach to trade and is by far not stupid at all.

[Composed Thinker]

3. I remember reading an article in The American Prospect a while ago, and

the writer, Robert Kuttner, took issue with the claim that Krugman's work was so influential. He said that economic historians and other countries had known what Krugman published for a long time:

This revisionism was explosive. It came to be known as the "new view" of trade. It was, of course, not new to economic historians, to students of industrial policy, or to Japanese, Korean, French, and German mercantilist planners. But it was a highly heretical concept within mainstream American economics. Krugman had to be taken seriously, not just because he was a card-carrying neoclassical prodigy, but because he could demonstrate the proposition more with reference to elegant algebraic models than with industrial and diplomatic history.

http://www.prospect.org/print/V7/28/kuttner-r.html

I'm not really sure how to analyze this. While Krugman is generally on the same political side as the people at TAP (Kuttner, Tyson, Reich, etc), there are personal (and some professional) problems between Kuttner and Krugman.

Whatever the case, Krugman was taken seriously in academia and has been ever since. He's still light years ahead of Luskin in every sense.

[priller]

2. Krugman has a whole string of vicious enemies

who scour his every word and utterance for the slightest error or misstatement. Krugman, to his credit, will admit when he's made a mistake, and of course that just sends his hater into spasms of spittle-flecked rage. Krugman handles it all with equanimity, and continues to write the truth about the Bush regime, even though he knows every word will be scrutinized. No "second-rate intellect" (ha!) could handle that.

[Composed Thinker]

4. Well said

[Evil_Dewers]

9. National Review devotes many articles bashing Krugman

Mostly on semantics--never on the facts.

[KC21304]

5. Paul deserves some sort of prize for predicting in 2000

what would happen if this bunch of lying loonies was elected. And that was just if their economic policies were adopted.

Of course he had no idea they would bring devastation to a lot of the rest of the world.

[La_Serpiente]

6. I heard the guy gets Death Threats

it won't be long before some freeper goes wacko...bless God that doesn't happen

[Composed Thinker]

7. I read that The Times hires someone to delete the hate mail

I did chuckle when I read this a few months ago in one of his columns:

But U.S. television coverage ranged from respectful to gushing. Nobody pointed out that Mr. Bush was breaking an important tradition. And nobody seemed bothered that Mr. Bush, who appears to have skipped more than a year of the National Guard service that kept him out of Vietnam, is now emphasizing his flying experience. (Spare me the hate mail. An exhaustive study by The Boston Globe found no evidence that Mr. Bush fulfilled any of his duties during that missing year. And since Mr. Bush has chosen to play up his National Guard career, this can't be shrugged off as old news.)

http://www.pkarchive.org/

[farmbo]

8. Krugman's simple message: The Emperor has no clothes!

Bush's deficits are not "managable" and the Bush top-heavy tax cuts will not spur economic growth.

They will only serve as a conduit to transfer wealth from the middle class to Bush's new corpo-aristocracy.

[La_Serpiente]

10. The freak is just jealous

He's just jealous.