by Comrade DougJ
Paul Krugman is not very far to the left. He is a huge proponent of free trade and the fiscal policies he proposes are straight out of mainstream Keynesianism. I do not know whether he would classify himself as a neoliberal or as a social democrat or as somewhere in the middle. I often don’t agree with his political analysis—he flirted with PUMAism during the 2008 campaign—but his economic analysis is rock solid. I say that not just because he has a Nobel prize but because he argues with numbers and historical examples—his argument against austerity, for example, is that it failed under Hoover and that it’s failing now in Ireland and the UK —rather than folkisms about sacrifice and belt-tightening.
Because he uses facts and data, and because he gives Village idiots no quarter, establishment media hates him and attacks him constantly as if he were a left-wing radical. Sully sneers at Krugman’s numbers and heh-indeeds Malkin’s criticism of him. The Kaplan editorial board regularly slams him (Marcus, Lane)—can you think of any other pundit they have ever criticized by name? David von Drehle—last seen fellating Glenn Beck, pimping a flat tax and insisting income inequality is no problem—writes one of the nastiest, and, yes most smug and condescending anti-Krugman screeds yet
snip
Human beings are tribal. Von Drehle’s tribe wants lower taxes for itself, suffering for the middle-class (he doesn’t want to do it, he feels he owes it to them, I’m sure), and a happy, comfortable circle jerk of Andrew Sullivan agreeing that Joe Klein is right to laud David Brooks for recommending that the poor eat their own children to save money.
I’m in the mood for a Malkin Award today, so I’ll say this: in another time and place, Von Drehle and his ilk might not have been shoving people into ovens, but they'd sure as shit be writing paeans to the virtue of marching native Americans to Oklahoma.
rest of article
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/04/27/krug-life/
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