Paul Krugman's Blog, page 635
May 27, 2009
A kindred spirit on the Court
I got into economics because I wanted to be Hari Seldon. Sonia Sotomayor went into the law because she wanted to be Perry Mason.
Around the world in 18 days
Literally: I started with high school teachers in Lincoln, Nebraska, ended with a university conference in Abu Dhabi, and hit 9 Asian cities in between. And I'm really glad to be back.
The poster above was in Guangzhou, at a news bureau, just before going off to the university to speak.
The poster above was in Guangzhou, at a news bureau, just before going off to the university to speak.
May 25, 2009
Remaking Times Square
I'm definitely in favor of making part of Broadway a traffic-free area. But you have to wonder - who's this for? As far as I know, nobody goes to that part of Manhattan anyway - it's too crowded .
Hating on social insurance
What Digby said. Of all the things to worry about in today's world, the prospect of Social Security shortfalls several decades from now doesn't rank high on the list. But there's a whole generation of Very Serious People who think that worrying about entitlements is how they demonstrate their seriousness - while, say, worrying about [...:]
Oops - column notice
Alert readers may notice that the last sentence of today's column doesn't seem to make sense in context. That's because it's not supposed to be there; it's a fossil from an earlier draft. My fault - I was filing from a remote location in a very different time zone, and didn't check properly.
Urp.
Urp.
May 22, 2009
Gratuitous ignorance
The PEN/New York Review panel discussion on the economy is online. I'll outsource the discussion of what went down to Brad DeLong. Just this to add: it's bad enough to have people resurrecting 75-year old fallacies about macroeconomics right in the middle of a crisis in which knowledge is our only defense against catastrophe. What's [...:]
Metropolitan macho
It occurred to me that some people might read my post about Hong Kong as yet one more case of a liberal trying to impose his aesthetic preferences on others; that's the usual rap against "smart growth" advocates. Basically, the accusation is that anyone with a good word for urbanism must just hate the American [...:]
The future is not what it used to be
I'm in Hong Kong right now; as always, I'm just awed by the way the city looks. And this time I think I've figured out why it's so appealing.
Hong Kong, with its incredible cluster of tall buildings stacked up the slope of a mountain, is the way the future was supposed to look. The [...:]
Hong Kong, with its incredible cluster of tall buildings stacked up the slope of a mountain, is the way the future was supposed to look. The [...:]
May 19, 2009
Prodigal intellectuals
So I see Richard Posner has decided that modern conservatism is intellectually bankrupt. And Bruce Bartlett has a new book saying it's time to let go of Reagan.
At one level it's good to see decent people showing some intellectual flexibility (Bartlett, in particular, has always come across as someone with whom one can have honest [...:]
At one level it's good to see decent people showing some intellectual flexibility (Bartlett, in particular, has always come across as someone with whom one can have honest [...:]
Ahem
Politico:
Health care could soon go the way of the automobile, with users having no choice but to buy insurance coverage.
Within four years, every American could be required to own health insurance or pay their way through tax penalties. The odds of such a sea change rose last week when chief Democratic and Republican Senate negotiators [...:]
Health care could soon go the way of the automobile, with users having no choice but to buy insurance coverage.
Within four years, every American could be required to own health insurance or pay their way through tax penalties. The odds of such a sea change rose last week when chief Democratic and Republican Senate negotiators [...:]
