Abstract

Krugman's World

The author criticizes a new book by economist Paul Krugman, arguing that Krugman defends the neoliberal policies of former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Enter the world of Paul Krugman, a world either dark (the eras of Bush I and Bush II) or bathed in light (when Bill was king). Near the beginning of his collection of columns, "The Great Unraveling," Krugman looks back on Clinton time. Across the past three years Krugman has become the Democrats' Clark Kent. A couple of times each week he bursts onto the New York Times Op-Ed page in his blue jumpsuit, shoulders aside the Geneva Conventions and whacks the bad guys. Krugman paints himself as a homely Will Rogers type, speakin' truth to the power elite from his virtuous perch far outside the Beltway: "Why did I see what others failed to see? he asks, apropos his swiftness in pinning the Liars label on the Bush Administration. All of which is self-serving hooey. The homely perch is Princeton. Krugman shares, with no serious demur, all the central assumptions of the neoliberal creed that has governed the prime institutions of the world capitalist system for the past generation and driven much of the world deeper; ever deeper, into extreme distress. The fact that he skirts Cuba, can't be bothered even to address the consequences, or even contours, of the shift in Third World economic strategies in the postwar period, tells us how little Krugman is prepared to look with any honesty at his own economic ideas in the mirror. Krugrnan is a press agent, a busker, for Clintonomics.