Highly unlikely. But the Grande Nobeliste has shown himself a prize jerk and something of, well, not exactly a racist, more of a “countryist,” in his dopey defensive commentary about Estonia (apparently an economic success story). The president of that country has struck back on Twitter, with amusing bite. No word so far from cowardly Krugman. The Corner has the story:
It’s not quite Keynes v. Hayek, but Paul Krugman, no stranger to macroeconomic melees, has now set off a world leader, the president of Estonia. In a blog item this morning, Krugman criticized those who claim that Estonia is proof that austerity can work. He describes their situation as “a terrible — Depression-level — slump, followed by a significant but still incomplete recovery. Better than no recovery at all, obviously — but this is what passes for economic triumph?”
This afternoon, Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves took to Twitter to castigate Krugman for his criticisms:
There are more amusing Tweets from the Estonian president at the link.
I miss William Safire and Russel Baker.
Spinning in their graves.
Well, not Baker; he’s not dead yet.
I’m not dead yet either, Buzz, though I thought I would be when I read that ‘will Kruggie be fired’ headline. I am of course referring to the sales of my book, “Krugman and Reich, The Clownishness of Bearded Economists” in eleven most sportive volumes, New York Tomes Publishing 2010.
The President of Estonia was quite smart to react so as to blow up the incoming round now rather than later….if Eastern Europe hasn’t figured it out by now, the provincials we have running this administration view everything through how it impacts the holy cause of Progressivism. If Estonia is suceeding on a program of austerity, then Estonia becomes a threat to domestic issues, and Estonia must therefore be taken care of. Or so it seems.
If I were Estonia, I wouldn’t be suprised if I woke up on June 16th with the diplomatic version of a horse’s head in my bed. It’s how they roll in “Chicago on the Potomac”.
Ummm … I notice you don’t actually address the substance of Krugman’s argument, that Estonia, more than 4 years after the bubble burst, still is almost 10% under 2007′s real gdp and unemployment is over 11%. Wow, austerity forever – what a success story!!!
“Attention all hands. Multiple hits amidships. Numerous small fires and taking on water. Away the on-duty DC repair party to PJ Tatler. Begin damage control efforts.”
Actually, Estone is doing better than the US, except our figures are lies.
Unemployment is obvious. Everybody knows the main ways the marxists rig that one. Of course, there are many ways that people aren’t aware of. True unemploymnt is over 20% in the US, and very compable to the Great Depresssion. It’s about 2x what you say Estonia’s % is.
The one people don’t fully understand is GDP. The secret sauce there is that gubamint spending counts. So, the $5T going on $6T that the moron has put on out great grandkids credit cards actually BOOOSTS the GDP. Without that, the US’s GDP would be seriously negative since obama’s immaculation. 3 1/2 years of GDP at about 14% per year is about 50T. He borrowed 12% of that, so the net is in line with what you say are Estonia’s figures. In other words…probably down about 10% if you don’t count the piss-in-the-ocean spending.
That’s only the most obvious invalid boost to GDP, btw.
It’s all a rigged game. I would say that the marxists should be put in jail, except that execution is more appropriate.
Roger, there’s just no way the NYT can fire Krugman. His obvious mental disabilities, delusions & pathologies make him fire-proof, in that firing him would expose the Times to an unacceptable risk of legal damages under the ADA.
Plus, I think they need him. Keeping Krugman is the only way the Times can retain its 100% market share of mentally-disabled liberals.
One hour later Ilves wrote:
“Chill. Just because my country’s policy runs against the Received Wisdom & I object doesn’t mean y’all gotta follow me.”
My question is, why does the President of Estonia use the slang of an adolescent from Dixie? I’m sure he is a fine man; you just don’t expect an Eastern European politician to write “Chill” and “Y’all”.
True, but it does convey a sense of self-confidence and frankness that I find refreshing. I think that’s why conservatives do better with twitter than liberals, anyway. Nuanced BS and generalized obfuscation is not easy to do in 140 characters or less.
Bob,
Estonian president is trying to adjust his vocabulary to fit the intellectual level of the NYT readers. It’s like Obama dropping g’s when he is talking to Congressional Black Caucus.
THI grew up in the United States in Leonia, New Jersey and graduated from Leonia High School in 1972 as valedictorian.[2] He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Columbia University in 1976 and a master’s degree in the same subject from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. In addition to his native Estonian, he is fluent in English, German and Spanish.
The President of Estonia is from New Jersey? I think I should go get drunk now.
Please note that the President of Estonia is a Social Democrat. (Though as President he is currently above party politics.) It says something about Estonian politics that even Social Democrats think that austerity is good for growth and Krugman is a charlatan.
The government is a coalition between classical liberals and Hayekian conservatives, so the Prime Minister would have been even more scathing.
Also keep in mind that Estonia had been growing at close to 10% a year for a decade prior to the crisis, so a drop of 20% of GDP means going back a couple of years, nothing more. Obviously people wanted to go back to a high growth rate, meaning that they wanted to stick to the pre-crisis policies.