Paul Krugman’s Asking For It

by tristero

Y’gotta love the guy. Reading Krugman is like reading everything that blogging should be, but rarely is: Informed, compelling, documented, provocative, pithy, witty, sometimes snarky and angry commentary by someone who knows exactly what s/he’s talking about. And Krugman is sly as a fox – but not the newsy kind of fox, of course.

I suppose I could quote this in context, but why bother? Heaven knows, the rightwing won’t:

[W]hat’s bad for Wall Street would be good for America.

Krugman’s riffing, of course, on the infamous, “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country” (which was also taken out of context, although from what I can tell, the context barely helps). He’s cruisin’ for a bruisin’, baiting his hook with rhetorical flies for Newts and other slimy critters. I can hear the howls of horror, that a Nobel Prize Winner would dare to assert so, so… crudely that the financial industry, one of the great engines of American economic prosperity – one third of total domestic profits in 2008!* – are working at exact cross-purposes with US interests. That is, Wall Street is traitorous scum.**

It will be interesting to see if he is called on this by the usual suspects. And even more interesting to see how he reacts and handles them. All of us would learn a lot. Or maybe they’ll ignore him. It doesn’t matter. Sooner or later Krugman will succeed in saying something equally “outrageous” at a time when the right will judge it is politically appropriate to attack him.
Krugman’s throwing down the gauntlet – he not only welcomes their hatred, he is courting it.

Thanks, Professor K. You made my morning. I’m still chuckling.

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*My God, is something that dangerously, insanely unstable possible? But that’s what Krugman says. Could an economist-type verify this, please, for the ignoramuses amongst us (starting with the present author)?

** I know, I know, that’s not what Krugman said, unless you squint really hard, twist yourself into knots, and really hate the fellow’s guts. In other words, that’s exactly how the rightwing and the media will hear it.