Paul Krugman: Smartest Man in the Room

As Sarah said, the NYTimes is hardly ever wrong....

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Dang! That's cool!

So, given this global stamp of approval on his smarts on the economy, let's review some of Krugman's recent comments on the state of affairs:

On the Bush Administration finally waking up and following Britain's sensible path in buying equity stakes rather than toxic mortgages:

It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Paulson’s initial response was distorted by ideology. Remember, he works for an administration whose philosophy of government can be summed up as “private good, public bad,” which must have made it hard to face up to the need for partial government ownership of the financial sector.

I also wonder how much the Femafication of government under President Bush contributed to Mr. Paulson’s fumble. All across the executive branch, knowledgeable professionals have been driven out; there may not have been anyone left at Treasury with the stature and background to tell Mr. Paulson that he wasn’t making sense [2008.10.13].

On Senator McCain's health care plan:

In short, the McCain plan makes no sense at all, unless you have faith that the magic of the marketplace can solve all problems. And Mr. McCain does: a much-quoted article published under his name declares that "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

I agree: the McCain plan would do for health care what deregulation has done for banking. And I’m terrified [2008.10.05].

On the GOP's know-nothing politics:

Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through” [2008.08.07].

I love it when smart people agree with me. Congratulations, Mr. Krugman!