The Op Op-Ed
Deciphering Paul Krugman
Alex Moore :: Monday, October 12th, 2009 6:06 pm
Paul Krugman is one of our favorite Op-Ed columnists, so it sort of pains me to have to lay into him in this Op Op-ed. I get that if you have won a Nobel Prize for economics as Mr. Krugman has, you probably suffer from the Stephen Hawking affliction where it’s nearly impossible to dumb down your ideas enough for normal people to understand them. (Ew, no not that affliction, jesus.)
Paul Krugman’s Op-Ed starts out great today: “One lesson from the Great Depression is that you should never underestimate the destructive power of bad ideas.” Bang! I’m in, Paul, I’m hooked. But then he launches into ten paragraphs that I’m sure are totally incisive and brilliant, except for one thing: I can’t understand a damn word of it. Is it just me, or is this totally indecipherable?
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The Op Op-Ed
The Mission Is Not Accomplished, Okay?
Stephen Blackwell :: Friday, October 2nd, 2009 4:09 pm
When Paul Krugman writes things like, “Yes, the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration have pulled us “back from the brink” — the title of a new paper by Christina Romer, who leads the Council of Economic Advisers” -phew, can you imagine what reading a paper like that is actually like? It must be pretty whack. I remember reading all this Derrida for Comparative Linguistics — I suppose it’s like that only with numbers and none of the sexy French rage.
Anyways, Krugman’s pretty pissed about the current wave of optimism spilling over the country. That’s right, if you have a job, you’re an asshole. I hope you feel bad about being employed. He feels our newfound confidence is uncalled for, what with the staggering unemployment projections through 2012 and the resulting likelihood of garish child poverty. His point: spend more money now, which he’s been saying for the past nine months. Is it just me, or is Paul Krugman the least listened to man in America?
[NYT]
