Brilliant, aware, reality-based? Surely you don’t believe an unflattering pic divulges something sinister about him. He’s one of the few well-known economists who actually writes the truth and backs up his ruminations with solid facts. It’s TV flimflam men like Santelli who prey on the unintelligent and fearful teabaggers.
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It’s obvious; they’re trading against him.
Um…actually, that’s not what Krugman won his Nobel for (it was for his work on economies of scale in international trade). But he’s sure as hell been arguing that point – persuasively, with documentation – for some time, noting (now with years of evidence) that when rates are at the zero lower bound (ie, “want” to be below zero based on the fundamentals) the Fed can be quite aggressive without risking a major increase in inflation. In fact, he’s argued, persuasively, with documentation, that for the sake of the rest of us the Fed actually needs to make it known that they’re raising their inflation target enough that people with money stop sitting on it and spend it productively instead of clipping coupons. But of course, if they did that, the rentiers would have Yellen’s head on a pike.
/annoying wonkitude
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I’ve said it for decades now, and I really mean it: the defining characteristic of a Republican lies in the empathy gene. The condition ranges from moderate (now virtually extinct) Republicans, who have a recessive or weak gene, to hard-right conservatives, in whom it seems to be missing altogether. And then there are those special cases whose clueless ugliness can only be explained by a genetic defect; I call it the Limbaugh mutation. And yeah, in those cases psychopath, or sociopath, fits quite well.
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Not sure it’s even a majority of economists who disagree with Krugman; the analysis and projections of a sizable number of even Wall Street economists have been more or less consistent with his over the past few years (though they haven’t drawn some of the obvious conclusions Krugman does about policy – not their job, and they want to keep those jobs). But ever since the right got control of academic economics, apparently it’s hard to get published in the journals or advance in many departments unless you’re still a Keynes-disdaining supply-sider. And the death grip the right has had on our politics since the 1980s has basically given those guys the Megaphone of Destruction.
Psychopaths/sociopaths <-- same thing, different name. Incapable of empathy and voraciously self-interested. "I really don’t care about this. If you have the right plan set up, you can make a lot of money from this. " http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisbarth/2011/09/26/new-study-old-news-stock-traders-are-psychopaths/
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These weren’t just any traders applauding him. They were commodity future traders, of which Santelli made his way through the ranks when he was younger. These guys know absolutely nothing about macroeconomics or even business. They’re auctioneers, the guys who you see wildy gesturing and shouting over each other on the floor. They’re prowess mostly resides in who is the best at shouting, cold reading people across the floor, and “gut hunches” . They couldn’t read a balance sheet to save their life. They’re barely above the degenerate gamblers chain smoking at the dog tracks.
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those guys see themselves as the T-Rexes of the world: primeval, basic, live by tooth & claw. anyone else is a pussy, and anyone who cares about the pussies is a worse pussy. they tend to be very cliquish, probably because no one else can stand to be around them.
I dont think its that unflattering. He looks professorial.