Paul Krugman -- a professor of Economics and International Affairs at  Princeton University and a prominent columnist for The New York Times --  has won this year's Nobel Prize in Economics. Folks who know him and his work in trade theory (and economic geography) must also know that he's long been anticipated as a future Nobel Laureate.

What is more interesting to me and perhaps to many others especially at the outset of the Presidential Election is the fact that Krugman has been one of the most vociferous critiques of President Bush and a fierce critiue of Alan Greenspan (Chairman of the Federal Reserve). It is interesting to note that he gained more popularity after he vehemently criticised Bush's policies from the war in Iraq to economy in general.  With Bush's approval ratings at  historic lows (25% as per last Gallup's survey, if I remember it correctly), does this win of Krugman mean, in effect, an indirect but a sureshot stamp by the committee to his stance on Bush's policies as well? Could his win turn out to be more detrimental to the already jeopardised (and dareisay hopeless and desperate) McCain campaign?

Only time will tell...

(Oh did I hear -- Landslide loss, "My friends" ?)

Loote Sir, despite his association with or inclination towards Democratic camp, he is no help to Obama either. You must have noticed brilliant Jews, who dont go for dollar, end up as leftist. Paul Krugman is sort of same- lots of brain but on the left.  

 

suike, my friend :P,
true ...polls can vary in a week's time. if you remember, El Gore was a whopping 10 points ahead of Bush one month before the election in 2000 only to lose to him a month later. However, at this stage, Obama is going great guns with offensive campaigning at red states. He is not even too much worried about the swing states at this stage. That's what I would like to call - confidence (a move towards a landslide win, if you will ).  Unless he comes up with something extraordinary at today's debate or  in the next few days, it's going to be a really really tough job for McCain to come out of this lag(pulling off a victory is a far cry for him). The way I see this, it's slipping away from him by the day as the big day is approaching...

Kishnekale bro,
I don't claim either that the Krugman's win would have a drammatic increase in the vote count for Obama. What it would do , IMO, is that it would boost the morale of Bush haters(especially his policies on tax cuts and economy in general) and with Obama campaign's main tactics in this campaign being making McCain's prospective presidency look nothing more than the Bush's last 8 years; the Krugman's win will startle the nervers of the McCain supporting centrists and swing voters in the coming few days.

Here's a more than 2 year old video of Krugman where he sorta predicts housing bubble burst and recession in the near future.

I guess it would be unfair to compare Al Gore with Obama. Obamania has started for last 2 yrs and ya'll still stuck with good ol McCain and democratic overconfidence attitude. The matter of fact is anyone running against Republican right now is on offense. McCain a great character/personality and undoubtedly  one of the finnest American hero beaten by fuggin Whitehouse clown [twice] in his lifetime.

In lieu with this article, long time back when I was a freshman, Krugman was a keynote speaker for econ seminar at my university and at that time he was a harsh critic of Bush administration and his way of dealing with economy. He was not this famous then but his speech was very interesting in comparison to our inidan economics legend Amartya Sen. Boy-oh-boy, Sen's speech was very hard to understand and was way beyond my understanding. I am glad Krugman is the man this time around. He sure won't be in Obama cabinet, but again why do Obama need people like Krugman when he has fiscal maestro like Larry Summers by his side.

Peace ya'll

Quote: ""The seniors are big-time swingers"   eeeWWWW

A few years back, IIRC 2002 or 2003, Krugman told a fellow economist that he would write a column for anyone saying whatever that person wanted him to say so long as they paid him $50k.  What a pitiful joke of a "man."

I don't think everyone is required to win a Nobel Prize to effectively criticize Bush' economic policies. Krugman being decorated with one is just an affirmation of the lame duck Presidential leadership we have had for the last eight years. After all, W's historical low approval rating by the people sheds a spotlight on his performance.

Here is a guy who turns his life around in his forties by being 'religilious' who was otherwise given to constant heavy drinking. Prior to that his own father, Bush Sr, had concluded that his elder son would amount to nothing. But there is this indomitable thing called 'destiny' that had designs on him to be elected the Emperor of the World. Harvard Business School did he attend but the other week I read about a French journalist who got accepted, to his own amazement, at the prestigious institution. He acknowledged that once you're in, there is no way you can't walk-out with a degree. Needless to say, he could not get a job with that degree but he went on to write a book about his experience at HBS and musings that followed.

During the housing bubble, Bush was preaching how America was evolving into an 'Ownership Society' as home-ownership rose to historic high of almost seventy percent. Now with the sub-prime mortgage mess and looming recession, the ownership rate might go even below historical average percentage of the mid-sixties since so many mortgage-holders were unscrupulously coaxed into the sub-prime party.

When irrational exuberance takes over during boom times on the part of the actors, there is only so much the system can suck all up, then a recession crawls in. Robert Schiller, Yale economist and even Greenspan had been hinting of bubbles for quite a while. Partly it was the fault of Greenspan as the low-rate interest was offered to prop up the economy for way too long thus paving the way sub-prime mortage abyss.

BTW, if the seniors are the big-time swingers, the only root-cause of that phenonmenon could be the jagged little pill called viagra.

$50K for a colum, ain't no joke for anybody at any given time at any given condition. You can go wrong with anyone; for me never ever against someone whose department chair happen to be Bernanke in the past and teaches Econ classes in Princeton. I am econ junky; his trade theory is pretty impressive. You can relate a lot to your real life.

It was sad to see how republican was pissed at democrat for spending more money than he is doing in this election and is meters away from landslide loss. Bush is the worse thing ever happen to US in our generation. Seems like people here know lot about Bush, please read through Clinton's biography, literally I was disgusted for being against Gore.

Anyway, just my thoughts peeps. TIE, a.k.a take it easy ;-)