After spending 25 years as a columnist for the New York Times, Paul Krugman is finally retiring from that position—25 years too late, if one wishes to be honest. It is hard to measure the influence he had from that perch, but his columns surely were the deciding factor in his winning the Nobel in economics in 2008 after eight years of lambasting the George W. Bush administration.
(His Nobel Prize was given, ostensibly, for “his work in economic geography and in identifying international trade patterns,” but one should have no doubt that, without having the power and influence of the New York Times behind him, it is doubtful that the Nobel Committee would even have known of his existence. I weighed in on the Nobel selection in a column in Forbes, hastily-written during a short break between classes I was teaching at Frostburg State University.)
Not surprisingly, the response from his peers is hagiographic. Kathleen Kingsbury, quoting from Krugman’s first column, declares: MORE
But he is truly historic.
Never has there been an economist more shamelessly wrong.
If you wanted to know any fact or know any useful course of action on anything, seek Krugman’s advice and do the opposite. The guy was a as dumb as he was corrupt. Same with Thomas Friedman.
His commitment to ignorance is unsurpassed.
When the rest of that rag is so disingenuous, why expect them to hire someone who tells the truth?
Slugman hides the Left’s agenda in the fog of financial-fairyland rhetoric.
I went to a university that taught Keyensian economics. Even as a wet-behind-the-ears freshman, I realized that Keynesian theory was wrong because it ignored the human element. Politicians are willing to spend government money not necessarily because it stimulates an economy, but because politicians are willing to spend your money and mortgage your children’s future to pay off supporters or prop up mistakes in order to hide them and keep themselves in office.
In my opinion, Krugman became “relevant” only because what he advocated pleased his political masters – not because his theories were sound.
The wormy little halfwit was consistently wrong about everything. Good riddance.
Wondering if I was going to wear out the “upvote thumbs up” on the comments here.
Dang. From the title I thought it was his obit.
^^^^^^^^^^ Hope springs eternal …
From the Mises Wire: Krugman even resorted to fantasy in his quest to fight the mighty “liquidity trap,” [Keynes] claiming that if the US were to prepare for a never-to-come alien invasion, the burst of government spending would revitalize the economy.
The alien invasion came, but not from Outer Space as I suppose Krugman was fantasizing about. And it did not revitalize the economy.
Keynesian Economics: a disaster of an idea from the disturbed mind of a wealthy and entitled British upper-class man and probable pervert.
Krugman is a bird’s breakfast.
Yep, that internet thingie turned out to be a real flash in the pan. Krugman was prescient on that one.
He won’t be missed. There are plenty of columnists that are wrong about everything in a partisan way ready to take his place.
Someone should buy him a fax machine as his retirement present, and then send it to him with a note saying that we wanted to give him something more valuable than the Internet.
Now Krugman will have the bandwidth to participate in the next reshoot of, “Snow White.”
And yet, there will be people out there who will continue to quote Slugman as a great economist.
Riiiiight. Between Slugman and his sycophants, I have to wonder who could balance a checkbook better,and not go into deficit?
Nobel prizes are worthless after Krugman was given one.
Proof that the Nobel prize is completely political. When has he ever been right?