I won't claim to be half as smart about economics as is Paul Krugman, but I'm pleased to see his slap-down of Michael Kinsley.
Read Krugman's blog post below for his economy- and austerity-specific comments. But what really caught my attention was his dead-on remarks about Kinsley and
New Republic weaknesses, which I've been saying for years (to nobody who cares, naturally).
Krugman on the attacks on his writings: "... I suspect it has a lot to do with the famed TNR/Slate premium on being 'counterintuitive,' which in practice meant skewering supposed liberal pieties."
And: "[T]his is not a game. We’re having a discussion about policies that affect tens of millions of people. And you have no business participating in this discussion if you’re so busy trying to sound clever that you can’t be bothered to do your homework." Echoes there of Harlan Ellison's famed comment that you're not entitled to your opinion; you're entitled to your
informed opinion.
Most of you won't understand how dead-on his criticisms are of Kinsley and TNR, but for those of us who have read a lot of both, we can appreciate having a Nobel laureate in our corner.
Read Krugmans New York Times blog post.
