A blogger wins a Nobel

Paul Krugman, Princeton economist and New York Times columnist and author of this indispensible blog, won the Nobel prize in economics this year.  Of course, the Nobel was for his academic work -- on international trade -- and not for his popular work.  But it is through his New York Times columns that most of the world (I was surprised to find on a recent trip to India that The Hindu carries his columns!) knows him.

He saw the duplicity of the Bush administration's economic policies earlier than most, and has been beating the drums for a better health care system for years now.  He also warned against Greenspan's enabling of a housing bubble back when Greenspan was suggesting that people go get adjustable rate mortgages.  He suggested ways of improving the bailout -- the British government and the European Union essentially took his recommendations. It appears that our government is swallowing its pride and following suit.  Krugman is a one-man poster child for why you need experts and not jack-of-all-trades hacks and journalists setting and criticizing policy.

Krugman's reaction to the Nobel announcement, on his blog, is quite droll:
A funny thing happened to me this morning …
During the Democratic primary, he was for Clinton and against Obama because her health care plan was more progressive than his and because he believes that America is  too racist for Obama to actually win the election.

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