A lonely nation turns its eyes to Paul Krugman
By Crawford Kilian March 21, 2009 08:40 pm
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In what may have been the worst weekend for the US economy since the fall of 1929, the US blogosphere exploded about Barack Obama's "Katrina moment."
In his Saturday New York Times column, Nobel Prizewinning economist Paul Krugman reported on the leaked Geithner plan for the American banks, and declared: "The zombie ideas have won...What an awful mess."
Other respected economics blogs like naked capitalism agreed: "One would have to be a criminal to participate in this."
A top economics blog, Calculated Risk, ran a YouTube clip of a song from last fall: "Hey Paul Krugman," asking him to do more to save the country.
Ex-Republican blogger John Cole summed it up:
The Illness - reckless and irresponsible betting led to huge losses
The Diagnosis - Insufficient gambling.
The Cure - a Trillion dollar stack of chips provided by the house.
The Prognosis - We are so screwed.
Another New York Times columnist, Frank Rich, quoted a letter to the editor: "President Obama may not realize it yet, but his Katrina moment has arrived."
Canadians will have to wait to see if they're in the path of the storm, and what the Harper government will do about it.
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
A brief note on this. Paul Krugman was a bear on the US economy for the past 3 years, but generally blasted Nouriel Roubini, as being way off base. Roubini, who I feel is now going a bit overboard in self-advertising, was, and still is, absolutely correct. PK has offered a number of small, slow and intermediate (within articles), notes to NB - an inkling of apology. PK and NB are now totally in editorial agreement - so watch what they say, take it in.
The fact that Paul Krugman is now coming out openly, even more pessimistic than Nouriel Roubini, and editorially blast the Obama administration on economic policy (when he has been a big fan for over a year) is telling.
Canada, watch out.